


A Delicate Heart

by stormcrest (morrgais)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Family Bonding, Family Issues, Namine-centric, Other, and some typical high school drama in general, have yourself some socially awkward namine, maybe some crazy shenanigans from everyone else too because high school, there's some romance here too i swear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-27
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-03-03 20:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 56,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2886335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrgais/pseuds/stormcrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things haven't been easy for Namine in Destiny Islands, so she decides to spend the rest of her high school years in Twilight Town. She's hoping to make a fresh start, but it's not easy when the past comes to haunt you, and you're holding a deep secret that you're afraid to tell everyone else, even your friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Train Home

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Honestly, if I owned Kingdom Hearts, it would be titled Kingdom Hurts.

It was just for one night.

 _One_  night.

Then it went from one night to staying for the weekend. A weekend transformed into a week. A week turned into a month. A month turned into a  _year_.

I swore my parents were never going to come to an agreement.

Once my mom called my dad a really bad name (it rhymed with casserole—if you took out that whole word and replaced it with "asshole"), she hung up on her cell with a yell of frustration. I just stayed where I was, coloring innocently as she came over to sit across from me and act as if I was simply five and doing those crappy crayon drawings again. I could see it in her face, trying to pretend as if she and Dad got along swimmingly still and didn't just remind me right then and there why they had divorced. Arguments between them got worse when they were face-to-face, trust me.

"After talking with your father, I've decided to let you stay with him until you graduate. I was just negotiating with him on the times you'd come visit me. Besides all that, it's settled."

It was official. For my junior year and senior year, I would be a student at Twilight High. It was what my mom suggested, since Dad lived in Twilight Town, and something I learned to accept. Destiny High wasn't working for me anymore. It wasn't an easy decision, because I really didn't want to leave my mom behind. However, she told me it was for the best, because she knew I would be miserable if I stayed there.

The plus side to all of this would be that I'd be able to see my dad and also my brothers. I had guessed my mom was also pushing on having me stay over there for more than one night or something like that in order to spend time with them. The last time I saw them was Christmas...and that was three years ago. I'd been told they were excited to see me, and I was glad, but at the same time I was screaming on the inside. I hadn't seen them in a very long time, and I was scared to see how different they had become.

Some people wondered why all the boys live with my dad, and I'm the only one that lives with my mom. It's not because of genders or anything like that. While my mom was the one who wanted the divorce first, my dad also agreed, but my mom knew how much it was hurting him. He cared about our family a lot, and he was afraid of having it break apart in the worst ways possible. Mom knew right then she wasn't going to take custody of all of us. In fact, she pushed most of us to go live with Dad. It wasn't because she didn't care about us or wanted to get rid of us right away. I could tell she still cared for our dad, even if she didn't love him anymore.

Cloud was the first to take the step on staying with Dad. Sora followed after, along with Ventus and Roxas. I, however, could not. I loved my dad, always have and always will, but I didn't want to leave Mom behind. Something in the back of my mind just told me no. Even if I would be separated from my brothers, I couldn't leave Mom alone. I knew what it was like to be lonely, and I didn't want her to go through with that.

Which was what made this a lot harder. I wasn't too keen on leaving Mom behind, but she insisted I go. First off, I needed to let myself be happy and take a breather from the mess that was my life in Destiny Islands. Second, I hadn't seen my brothers or Dad in a long time. It would be good for me.

But, again, what if they didn't want me around or something? What if I had changed too much for them? What if they had changed too much for  _me_?

I hated how messed up our family was.

* * *

Now I was on a train that would take me to Central Station to meet up with my family. I was excited, don't get me wrong, but I was also terrified still. Would  _all_  of them be waiting for me? We were a pretty big family. It was just Cloud for awhile, and then us quadruplets came along. I'm still surprised we don't give Mom more grief.

The train rolled in, and I grabbed hold of my luggage and tentatively walked out after some other people did. I made sure to stay away from other people; I was never a fan of strangers, especially if they bumped into me or touched me. It got scarier when it was deliberately, but then I'd force myself to ignore it.

My eyes warily looked around to see if I could spot anyone from my family, but I couldn't find anyone. I was beginning to get a little scared and even began to panic.

"Nami!"

I turned my head at the source of the voice and found someone waving at me. When I looked closer, I found a boy with blue eyes like mine (except his were much bluer) and had spiky dirty blond hair. He was grinning as he kept waving. Even if the two of them dressed in the same outfit, I could still easily distinguish who was who.

"Roxas?" I whispered to myself as I stared at him. His eyes sparkled in recognition, proving to me I had guessed right, even if I knew all along. "Roxas!" I called out louder, running towards him with luggage in tow. He kept on waving as I kept on running, soon letting my stuff fall out of my hands before running full speed to bring him into a hug. He almost fell over from the unexpected hug, but then he laughed as he hugged me back. The both of us held onto each other tightly, not letting go anytime soon. I buried my face in his shoulder, feeling my chest burn from happiness and excitement. It was really him. My brother was actually standing in front of me, giving me a hug.

"Oh, so he gets the first hug? Wow, I feel so special, Naminé!" I heard another voice that sounded much like Roxas's say to me. I turned my head to the left to find practically an exact copy of Roxas, but he was in different clothing. If I didn't know I was hugging Roxas, I still would have known who I was facing anyway.

"Ven!" I cried out happily, separating from Roxas to embrace Ven. While Roxas's hug was warm, Ventus's was simply friendly and happy. I didn't know how else to explain it. "I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you, don't worry!"

He chuckled. I could feel it in my chest. "It's okay. You just did."

I smiled at him once we separated from the hug.

"Sure, she hugged you two first, but are either of you her favorite brother? No, because that title belongs to  _me_!"

I didn't even have to guess in my head on who that voice belonged to.

I watched as Ven and Roxas rolled their eyes good naturedly before turning my gaze to another boy with brown spiky hair and blue eyes. His eyes weren't exactly like Ven's and Roxas's, or even mine, but they were still blue nonetheless. His entire being screamed radiance, and I knew it was because naturally his demeanor was nothing but happiness and joy.

"Sora!"

The second I ran up to him to wrap him up in an embrace, he laughed happily and spun me around. I screamed a little before laughing while holding onto him tightly. The twirl didn't last too long. He set me down on the ground with another laugh as I smiled up at him. Sora could definitely not fail in making me smile or even laugh. If he did, that would definitely show all hell had gone loose.

"Welcome home, Naminé."

A boy with blond spiky hair and blue eyes looked at me with the smallest of smiles, but it was there. Judging by his stance and demeanor, I knew automatically who he was.

"Cloud," I whispered.

I hugged him with him gently hugging me back. The both of us just held onto each other for awhile before separating. Cloud never showed too much emotion, but I figured deep down on the inside he was glad that I was here. Or, at least, it's what I hoped.

"There's my baby girl!"

What no one really understood was how we had two parents who were blond, yet Sora had brown hair. My mom had an aunt who had brown hair, so that was the simplest answer we could give. After all, Sora did look like us, except for the hair, and that was it. My dad was in his mid-forties, and he had short blond hair with blue eyes, much like the rest of the family. Without even thinking, I went up to hug my dad as tightly as possible. I hadn't realized it till now, but I missed him so much. It seemed he missed me too, because he wanted to hug me just as tightly.

"I missed you, Dad. I missed all of you," I murmured in his ear. I could feel tears coming to my eyes, but I forced them back.

"We missed you too, sweetheart," he whispered back to me. "We all did."

It was like I never left.

* * *

Surprisingly enough, we all began talking like it hadn't been three years since we'd last seen each other. My brothers told me stories of what had happened in their lives, especially Sora, and I enjoyed listening to every single one of them. A lot of them were stories they didn't have time to mention over the phone, in an e-mail, on Skype, etc.; it felt better to hear in person. It felt like I'd missed on so much, and I wanted to find out as much as possible before anything else happened. I laughed at some of the tales, even made noises of disgust for a few of them. At one point Dad had to tell them to stop because he knew how uncomfortable they were beginning to make me.

After that, of course they wanted to ask how  _my_  life had been going.

Kill me now.

"Oh, well, uh, there's not much to tell!" I told them meekly, trying to pass it off on a light note with a small laugh.

Of course my family wasn't one to give up on a subject that easily.

"Come on! We told you about our lives. Now it's your turn to tell us about yours," Sora said.

Honestly, none of them would have been able to understand the horrible years I had to go through. They were still happening. Another reason why I couldn't bring myself to tell them about what was going on with me. There was a reason why I had come here, and I didn't even know if my mom told Dad the whole situation. I had a feeling she didn't. It was something I would have to tell him myself.

Today would definitely not be that day.

"Oh, Sora," I said to him with a small laugh, "we both know with people like you, as well as the rest of our brothers, life can get pretty interesting! The same can't be said for me."

"Naminé, come on!" Roxas nudged me. "I bet you have something to share with us."

I could feel myself panicking, but then I began to remember something that did happen not too long ago that made me smile. "Did I tell you guys that someone called the fire department because they swore our house was on fire?"

All my twin brothers (we just called each other twins because saying "quadtruplet brother/sister" wasn't as catchy, or "quad brother/sister" either) grew wide-eyed. I could hear Dad snort while I sensed Cloud simply rolled his eyes. It was no secret that, while Mom could cook just fine, she wasn't the best baker. I was, but she insisted on making her own brownies or pie or  _something_. However, it wouldn't always end well. She tended to get distracted. (All of us were sure that was where Sora got his short attention span from.)

I told the boys how, this one time she was trying to make some caramel chocolate brownies, the whole thing backfired  _very_  badly. I was out at the park at the time, using the outside world for inspiration for more drawings. Then I got a phone call talking about my house, and I raced home right away to find the fire department beginning to leave while my mom stood there, looking rather flushed. Turned out it had been a false alarm, but there was still quite a bit of smoke from the brownies.

"I can also see where Sora gets his horrible baking skills," Roxas remarked.

When Sora glared at Roxas, that was when we all had burst into laughter. I couldn't even remember the last time I laughed so much.

"So, how is Mom anyway?" asked Ventus. The one question I was sure was on everyone's minds for quite awhile, even Dad's, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

I gave Ven a soft smile. "She's been doing a lot better, thankfully. I'm sure she'll want to talk to you and the rest later, maybe on Skype or something. She said it was up to all of you."

"I'm up for it!" Sora answered as enthusiastically as possible, just like he always does.

"Count me in," Roxas added.

"I'm all for it," Ven said.

"I'm guessing I'll be dragged into this whether I like it or not," Cloud said. He tried to sound disgruntled, but I knew better. He missed Mom. "I'll do it too."

This made me smile. "Good! She'll be happy to hear it."

We all knew better than to ask Dad about it. He would more than likely say no, and none of us wanted to be responsible about putting our dad in a bad mood.

More silly chattering began among my brothers while I looked out the window to daydream. I hoped Mom really was okay. I knew the boys would check in sometimes, even my dad, on me and Mom. While we hadn't seen each other in a few years, my brothers and I still tried to keep in touch with text messages, phone calls, video chats, emails, online messages—I really only checked Facebook or Twitter because of them. Mom would talk to them as much as she could too, but I knew it wasn't as often as she wanted.

Thinking about her made me wish I didn't leave, but I let her take me away.

I could only hope I wouldn't regret it in the long run.

Dad had a pretty decent job here in Twilight Town. He was part of some big company I didn't know the name of. A few ways from the market place where there were the apartments of Twilight Town, there were actual houses as we kept driving along the actual road. There was a reason there were barely any cars around here, and that was because this town had mainly functioned on trains and walking, but some people owned actual vehicles around here, surprisingly.

We stopped in front of a two story house. The walls were painted white while the roof and some other parts of the house, such as the frame on the windows, were painted dark blue. It felt like it had been a lifetime since I'd been to this house. In a way, it had been.

"Let me help with your luggage, Nami," Ven said to me.

I shook my head in protest. "Oh, no, Ven, you don't have to." But it was too late to try and protest, because he insisted, and he already grabbed one of my bags. I didn't even bring much. Yet these boys were being nothing but kind and courteous to me right now, which would probably change the longer I stayed in the house. Don't get me wrong, I loved my brothers dearly, but they were also my brothers. That meant they were prone to being a little teasing and mocking, as well as being jerks. I couldn't help but always see the good more than the bad with them, though.

"I'm sure you remember the place," my dad said as I walked along the concrete path towards the house. On both sides of me, the grass was a luscious green, along with having green bushes at our front porch. "Sure, it's been a few years, but nothing has really changed."

As I went to enter the house, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Really? Nothing at all?"

"Nope!" called out Sora brightly from behind me. He was carrying some of my luggage too. "Even your room is the same as you left it."

My eyes grew wide at the thought. "Seriously?" I liked to give my brothers the benefit of the doubt, but one of them had to be snooping in my old room. "I mean, you sure none of you at least went in there to clean it or something?"

"Roxas might've, otherwise nobody went in there." Cloud gave a chuckle and a glance over at Roxas, who glared at him while his cheeks flushed. I hid a giggle behind my hand. Like me, Roxas had a habit of cleaning anything that seemed dirty to him. It wasn't all the time, and it wasn't enough to really label him OCD. He just liked to do it sometimes because it could be therapeutic. (His words, not mine.)

"I just knew you'd come back someday, and I didn't want it to be dusty when you came back," Roxas remarked. "Is that a problem for you, Cloud?"

Before this could turn into some kind of argument, I turned to Roxas with a smile. "I appreciate it, Roxas. You know how I'm not a big fan of things getting dusty."

He smiled back at me. "It's not a problem, Naminé."

The boys decided to let me settle in my room, which really had appeared to be the same when I left it. The room was mainly white, something that always threw people off if they ever saw this room. However, there were splashes of indigo in the room too, along with some of my past drawings. A lot of them were mainly of my family and no one else. They always brought color to the room to make it less white.

As I set my stuff down and went to unpack, I let out a tired sigh. Being around my family sometimes could get tiring, but I loved them all to death. Sometimes I was positive I wouldn't bother continuing on with life if it wasn't for them.

But still, my brothers had no idea what had been going on in my life for the past three years. It hadn't been easy for me and Mom back home. The both of us were still recovering, and she was trying to recover more than I was, I was sure. A lot happened, and only a few people knew the real story, especially  _my_  story.

To act like nothing was wrong and that everything was fine was tiring. My cheeks already felt sore from all the smiling I was doing; something I didn't do often enough back at Destiny Islands anymore, not as much as I used to. Things were so much different when we were all together as a family back then. Now I wasn't so sure. Sometimes it felt things were good or at least okay, but other times it felt like they were better when we were a family. I wasn't so sure which was really the truth and which was a lie anymore. Dwelling on it only gave me a headache.

 _Knock-knock_!

Someone was already knocking to come into my room already? At least the boys remembered to be courteous enough to knock on my door.

"Um, come in," I said while taking out some more clothes from my luggage. I was only slightly surprised when I saw it was Ven. "Oh, hi, Ven." I was only shocked because Roxas was usually the one to have a personal conversation with me.

"Hey, Nami," he greeted me back. He decided to take a seat on my bed while I simply kept bringing out clothes. It came to a point, though, where Ven grabbed my wrist to cause me to glance up at him in confusion. "Honestly, Nami, how have you  _really_  been doing? I know a lot of it in the car was just an act."

Some part of me wished he had fallen for the act, yet another part of me was relieved he didn't. It proved he still knew me so well after a few years.

I sighed, giving him a tired smile. "That obvious, huh?"

He gave me a small smile in return, letting go of my wrist. "We could all tell something was up. I just figured no one was really going to bother to confront you about it except, well, me." Then he raised an eyebrow. "So, what's up?"

I wanted to tell him the honest truth of why I was really here, because it certainly wasn't just because I missed them all and wanted to go for a school year or two with them. It was something else entirely.

But I knew I had to keep my mouth shut, because I was so afraid that they wouldn't understand. "Things have just been tough, you know?" I murmured softly. "I mean, things haven't been easy for Mom, and I've just been worried about her."

Ventus frowned at me. "You don't have to be here if you don't want to be, Naminé. I mean, if Mom still needs help—"

He didn't understand how much or why I had to leave Destiny Islands. He didn't understand the situation I was now in, and how much I wanted to be here. Not to mention Mom would smack me if I came back, because that talk she sacrificed herself to make with Dad would have been for nothing.

"No!" I answered quickly. "I mean, I think she does, but there are plenty of helpful people on the island. And she really wanted me to see you guys again."

"For the rest of your high school life?"

I nodded my head slowly. "She'll let me visit, of course, probably with you guys too!" There was an underlying tone of disbelief with him. He was trying to find out more of the truth, but I couldn't let him—not yet. "Don't worry, Ven. I'll be okay. I'm going to have you three and Cloud to help me out, right?" Dad too, but he worked a lot.

Ven nodded his head. "Oh, that reminds me! Rox has been putting off getting new uniform clothes, and Dad forced him to go tomorrow. You should go with him."

I had a feeling there was something else he was going to add. "Come on, Ven, just say it."

"Kairi's tagging along, and she's bringing a few friends with her. Oh, you also get to meet one of Rox's new friends, Axel. Maybe Xion'll come too."

There it was just screaming in my face. Ven wanted me to be social and have friends. That was something all of my brothers knew; I was definitely not the best at making friends. Unless friends teased you and picked on you and made you feel rather worthless, then I had plenty.

Kairi was one of my closest friends, though, so I didn't have to worry about seeing her. In fact, I looked forward to it. I guessed that's what her text to me earlier was about when she lamented to me how her uniforms were "so last year." (And, literally, they were.)

I didn't know why, but the name Xion sounded really familiar to me. I didn't dwell on it, though, because I was going to possibly meet her tomorrow anyway.

Sensing my discomfort, Ven gave me a soft smile. "It'll be fine, Naminé. They're really nice people. And you know Kairi! It should be fun."

I wanted to believe him, but it didn't stop the small panic rising in my chest. "Okay," I said softly.

Surprisingly, Ven gave me another hug that day. "I really am glad you're here, Nami."

"Good," I whispered as I hugged him back, "so am I."

I really hoped things would be better now.

Of course, the world was never that nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case this story looks familiar to anyone, it's because I also have this uploaded on ffnet! I just use a different penname for here. I have quite a few chapters done, so I might at least post one every day until I end up at the latest chapter (because posting all nine chapters at once sounds too heavy to me), and then things will change from there. So, uh, all I can say is to enjoy the constant updates for the next week I guess.
> 
> Until next time!


	2. The Woes of Shopping

After settling in and talking with Mom later, I was pretty exhausted. So I went to bed early and prepared myself for the next day. I was extremely anxious. I wasn't used to being social with others, but I was looking forward to it because I was finally going to see Kairi again. Yet, at the same time, I didn't know how I'd react to her friends, or Roxas's.

"You ready to go?" asked Roxas. His head peeked into my room.

He was lucky I had clothes on, since he decided to peek inside without knocking. Otherwise, I would have thrown a hairbrush at him.

"Yeah, we can go." I had just finished combing my hair when settling on some blue capris, gray flats, and a white blouse.

"I hope you don't mind if my friend Axel is driving us."

Oh, no, Roxas. I'm totally okay about getting in a car with someone I don't even know.

Except, I wasn't really all that sassy in reality. So all that came out of my mouth was "U-Uh, what?" as we walked out of my room to head downstairs.

Soon enough we were a few steps away from the door. Roxas already had a hand on the doorknob. "It's okay," he assured me, "he's one of my best friends. So it's not like he's going to kidnap us or anything. Kairi's friend Riku is driving them to the mall, so we're following after them."

I knew I had no other choice, and I didn't want to make a big deal about it. So I only gave Roxas a nod and a smile. He smiled back at me before opening the door and led us down the path to a black car fit for four other people, not including the driver. It wasn't the best car, but I wasn't complaining.

I quickly sat in the back while Roxas took shotgun.

"Hey, Roxas!" The guy I assumed was named Axel greeted him. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry," Roxas apologized. His eyes turned to me. "Hey, Axel, meet my sister, Naminé."

Turning in his seat to look at me, I saw this guy looked as old as Cloud. His hair was flaming red in long spikes. He had green eyes that reminded me of emeralds, and reversed teardrops were tattooed under his eyes. I made a mental note to try and draw him later if he wasn't looking, because his looks appeared interesting enough to draw, especially his hair.

_Is that—_ eyeliner _he's got a bit on his eyes…?_

Well, that definitely just made him more interesting, if not peculiar.

"So, this is the girl that completes your quad group," he said in amusement. "It's nice to meet you, Naminé. Like Roxy here said, the name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He pointed to his temple with a smirk.

I nodded my head, and then I tilted it in curiosity. "Did you just call Roxas 'Roxy'?" I was the one who first said it to him when we were kids, and the rest of the family followed just to piss him off when needed. With me, he didn't care that much.

Roxas's face went red while Axel chuckled. "I heard Sora call him that one time and saw how mad he got. So I like to call him that every once in awhile, just to keep him on his toes." Roxas went to punch him in the arm, which only made Axel laugh. "See what I mean?"

I smiled slightly. Axel seemed like a fun guy, but I couldn't help but still be wary, even if he was Roxas's friend.

The both of them talked while I sat in the back, purposely fiddling with my phone to look like I was busy. I wasn't good at making small conversation, so I didn't bother.

Once we made it to the mall, we all got out of the car and walked from the parking lot through the entrance. I watched as they chatted with each other some more while I stayed in the background, like I always did. I didn't want to interrupt a nice conversation. I noticed Roxas looked back at me every once in awhile, gesturing for me to come up next to him to join in. I only smiled and gave a shake of my head at him to show I was okay where I was. I was used to being alone.

He frowned, but he didn't say anything as he turned back to laugh at something Axel said.

I couldn't risk it. I was too afraid for someone to turn their back on me or find out my secret to use it against me. It sounded dumb, but that was one of the reasons I was afraid. Another was the fact I feared I'd only annoy others, and they wouldn't like me at all. I wasn't ready for more rejection.

We were soon in front of the uniform store, and I could see up ahead there was already someone waiting for us.

"Wow! It took you guys long enough!"

That voice sounded very familiar.

"Give us a break, Kairi!" yelled Roxas.

"Naminé?"

Now I knew.

I perked up at the sound of my name. My eyes found a young girl around my age with dark auburn hair and blue—or maybe indigo blue—eyes, in a bright, summer, flowery dress. She was smiling brightly at me and waving. I was overwhelmed with happiness and ran over to hug her immediately with her doing the same in return. It was filled with the typical girly squealing and laughing. Something I didn't usually do, except with people I knew very well. Once we separated, we couldn't stop smiling at each other.

There was such a big difference from talking to someone on the phone, texting them constantly, or even doing video-chat. When you meet that person face to face, everything seems a lot more real now. And it makes things so much better, because the hugs—along with everything else—isn't virtual anymore.

"It's so good to see you, Kairi," I told her happily.

"It's so good to see you too, Naminé. I've missed you so much!" Her hands were holding onto mine, which made me smile, because I was reminded on how good friends we were. "Axel, Roxas, it's good to see you guys too!" She smiled at them over my shoulder before letting my hands go to walk over to them. Then she gave them both hugs (which they appeared to be awkward with) before saying, "Come on! Everyone else is waiting in the shop!"

"Everyone else?" asked Roxas. "Like who?"

Kairi had to give herself a second to think before saying, "Well, there's Riku, Xion, Aqua, and Lena!"

I recognized none of those names.

"What? No Saix?" asked Axel.

Well, there was one.

Kairi shook her head. "He got his uniform a long time ago."

"Always prepared," Axel claimed knowingly. "Wait," he said, "why is Lena here?" I glanced up at the redhead and found he looked a little curious, but he also appeared concerned.

Kairi shrugged. "I dunno. She carpooled with Aqua, so maybe she knows something." Then she turned to me with a grin. "C'mon! You can finally meet some of my friends!"

Even if I said no, I had no choice when Kairi grabbed my hand and dragged me inside the uniform shop specifically for different schools, one of them most definitely being Twilight High. There were other uniforms around in different colors, like for Hollow Bastion High or even Sunset Hill High. It amazed me how this store wasn't just local, but reached other places too.

Roxas and Axel trailed off to another part of the store, probably keeping their distance because they knew how crazy Kairi could be with shopping sometimes.

"Kairi!"

I turned my head to find a girl who seemed to be the same age as Cloud and Axel. Her hair was short and blue, and she had the same colored eyes to match. Her clothes were even blue!

_And why does she look like a princess?_

"Hey, Aqua!" Kairi waved at her as she kept on dragging me closer against my will.

She screamed blue and her name was Aqua...oh, my. I knew her, from the times she popped up in conversation with Kairi, or the times there was a glimpse of blue in video chats that weren't from Saix. I felt there was something else about her that was recognizable to me, though.

"Who's this?" she asked, a kind smile on her face. How could anyone be this pretty? I mean,  _honestly_ , ugh.

"This is Naminé," Kairi answered. "Ven's sister, remember?" She then rolled her eyes. "Not to mention she's one of my  _best friends_!"

Recognition fell across Aqua's face. "Oh,  _you're_  Ven's sister!" She smiled, probably ignoring what Kairi added just to be a tease and make Kairi slightly irritated. It worked, because she let out a small huff next to me. "He's told me a lot about you."

My face flushed. "R-Really?"

"It was all good, I promise you."

"So, you're one of Ven's good friends then?" I didn't know if that was the truth, but I tried to remember one of many conversations I had with Ven. I think Aqua was in a few of those.

Aqua nodded her head. "Yup!" That just confirmed it.

"Where's Xion?" asked Kairi.

Aqua gave a small shrug while looking around the store. "I don't know. You know her. She tends to wander off, and she's surprisingly quiet sometimes—not to mention good at disappearing when she wants to."

That sounded a lot like what I did.

"We'll find her," Kairi said confidently. "Come on, Nami!"

Once more I was dragged like a rag doll throughout the store to find this mystery girl. "Uh, Kai?"

While her eyes decided to become binoculars, she said "Yeah?" without even looking at me.

"Which one is Xion?" This felt so embarrassing to ask right now.

Kairi paused before answering, "Homeschooled girl who switched to actual high school in freshman year."

Oh, right. I never spoke to her, but I'd heard about her too. I definitely knew it wasn't just from Kairi; she was talked about among my brothers too, especially Roxas. I honestly didn't know what relationship he had with her, but I had my suspicions. Besides, as of right now, I knew only two of my brothers were dating and that was it.

"Quick!" yelled Kairi to me. "She's over there!" She pointed to some skirts section for Twilight High, and I was pulled  _again_  by Kairi.

Was this how owners felt like with their dogs?

"Ugh, finally," Kairi said with a click of her tongue as we reached our destination. "God, Xion, we've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Sorry, I was just trying to find the right skirt for school, despite how much I hate these things."

I swore I was looking into the face of an angel.

I'll need to smack myself for that overused cliché later.

Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little, but my vision still held truth to that statement. I didn't exactly understand how the two were considered fraternal twins, according to Kairi. (I knew she had a twin sister, but not her name.) Her face looked like Kairi's, yet it didn't. Her hair was cut short and completely black, and she had the most deep yet bright blue eyes I'd ever seen. Trust me, there were a lot of people with blue eyes whom I had met, not to mention I was related to. Her eyes, to me, were the bluest of all.

_Note to self: Please smack self in private for being the cheesiest and most pathetic girl alive._

I could feel my knees were about ready to give out if Kairi wasn't still holding onto my hand. It got even worse when I noticed the girl's cheeks flush ever so slightly as she looked at me before averting her eyes. The skirt she was now holding in her hands seemed to be her anchor. While they were relaxed before, her hands now clenched tightly onto the skirt.

My stomach fluttered just a little.

"Who's this?" she asked.

Was she just as bad at meeting new people like I was?

"This is Naminé; the girl I've always been talking to you about!" answered Kairi. She seemed oblivious to the girl's obvious discomfort. "Naminé, meet my twin sister, Xion."

_I kinda figured that out when you called her Xion the first time, Kairi. No wonder Sora calls you Captain Obvious sometimes behind your back._

Suddenly, a hand was outstretched towards me. "Right, Naminé!" There went my assumptions on her being bad at meeting new people. "Roxas has told me a lot about you. Same with Ven, since I sometimes hang out with him if he doesn't feel like hanging out with Aqua. Or he doesn't want to cut in on her boyfriend time."

Well, there went my hopes and dreams of Aqua being single. Even if she was, I wouldn't have done anything. "She has a boyfriend?" I asked, after shaking her hand for a few seconds before pulling away awkwardly. I was genuinely curious, especially if this person was another friend of one of my brothers.

Xion nodded her head. "Yeah, but he's also another friend of Ven's. They're the golden trio—or at least one of them. When you meet him, you won't miss him. He's a tall, muscle-y guy. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, looks like he might kill you—yeah. He's pretty cool, though, and he goes by the name Terra."

_Stop giving me that look, Kairi._  "Oh," I said quietly. What else could I have said to that?

"Xion here is also one of Roxas's and Axel's best friends," Kairi chirped up in order to change topics and shift from the awkwardness rising. "I'm honestly surprised you two haven't met sooner."

I saw Xion's cheeks grow red, probably from embarrassment by talking to me. "Yeah," she muttered, "it really is weird."

For a good few seconds, the both of us just stared at each other with nothing to say and not knowing what to do. I was about to break the staring contest first when a voice emerged behind Xion.

"Hey, Xion, maybe you should wear this skirt for school on Wednesday."

I watched as a rather tall, muscular-looking boy appeared. His hair was rather long and silver, which I found interesting, since I didn't really know anyone with that kind of hair color.  _Unless we count old people_. Then again, Aqua was no better right now with her blue hair. He had some hair in his face too, but I could see his eyes were a bright blue, almost looking green. A smirk was on his face as he held up a purple skirt that made me question how much it could cover someone's butt,  _if_  it could, towards Xion.

Kairi rolled her eyes, while Xion glared at the boy before pushing him away from her. "You're such an ass, Riku!"

Ah, I figured this would be Riku, since it sounded like he was the only guy mentioned when Kairi said everyone was in the uniform store. I remembered some phone calls where Sora would sometimes yell at a guy named Riku, even try to get him to say hi to me for some weird reason, but that was it. I never knew what he really looked like. I mean, Sora told me what he looked like once, but that didn't count.

"Yeah," Kairi joined in, letting go of my hand to cross her arms while raising an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to imply that my sister's a slut?"

Riku didn't hesitate when he said, "Absolutely."

This resulted in him receiving a punch in the arm from Xion, who shook her head at him with a smile on her face. I blinked dumbly, not really understanding what was going on. Did people in Twilight Town enjoy being called slut nowadays?

I must have appeared bewildered, because Xion giggled slightly. "Hollow Bastion has been rumored to be filled with some slutty people, and purple is one of their uniform colors. I don't think the skirt is even that short, but—"

"Some of the girls definitely bring them up higher on purpose," Kairi added. "And what do you mean rumored? It's a  _fact_."

Riku nodded his head in agreement.

"You're just still sore about that lacrosse match with Hollow Bastion," Xion remarked.

I didn't even want to think about that one. Roxas called me in complete and total rage about it. I don't think he got over it for months, and it's been a year now. I wondered if he was even _officially_  over it.

"Oh, Naminé, I'd like you to meet Riku," Kairi introduced us. "Riku, this is my best friend Naminé!"

Suddenly, I found him just staring at me. I could just sense him studying me with that stare, as if analyzing me if I was someone worthy to bother with or not. Yeah, that was a very familiar feeling, because I got it a lot at Destiny High, and I usually failed the test according to their standards.

"Uh, it's nice to meet you, Riku. I'm guessing you're one of Sora's best friends?" I said best friend because Kairi talked about him a little too, and I was sure Sora, Kairi, and Riku were their own little trio. Sure, maybe I was Kairi's best friend, but there were times best friends were able to meet higher standards than other best friends.

Riku wordlessly nodded his head. Now that he wasn't talking to Xion or Kairi, his whole demeanor changed and appeared quiet towards me.

I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Probably noticing the awkward tension beginning to grow, Kairi cut in with, "So, Riku, where's Lena?"

He turned his gaze to her with a shrug. "How should I know? I thought she was somewhere else in the store."

"No," Xion cut in with a shake of her head. "I've been browsing around for awhile now and haven't spotted Lena since first coming in here."

Riku let out a groan. "Well, the only thing we can hope for right now is that she pops up soon, because trying to contact her would be useless."

"That, or Aqua gets worried enough she'll probably send one of us to look for her," Kairi said with a roll of her eyes. "I know my older sister better than anyone."

Xion gave a small sigh. "For now, we should just shop." She snatched the purple skirt right out of Riku's hand while walking past him.

"Hey!" he yelled out.

"If you're that desperate for fanservice, Riku, just switch schools and go to Hollow Bastion."

Kairi snorted while I just stared, not really used to being surrounded by people like this. It proved how I really didn't have any people skills.

But maybe, just maybe, this would be fun.

_Even when you guys were miles apart, Sora's optimism has rubbed off on you._

* * *

All of us began to explore the store together. It really wasn't that hard to find a new uniform for Twilight High, even for me. Most of the time it was spent mocking the other uniforms. When catching up with Axel and Roxas, I found myself acquainted with almost everyone, but I still mainly stuck with Kairi the entire time, glancing at Xion every few seconds. I would have been looking at Aqua, but she was taken and wasn't laughing at things Roxas was saying. And, also, I found her too pretty to look at anyway.

Honestly, was Kairi's family just made up of princesses or girls who at least looked like princesses? I mean, Kairi even looked like one herself, but she was practically a sister to me now, and she was taken.

There came a time where everyone was distracted with talking to each other, which gave time for me and Kairi to have a serious talk elsewhere. We ended up towards the Sunset Hill High uniforms section, which was a bit far from the others, so there was less chance of them hearing us getting into a deep discussion.

"You were totally pining for my sister. Oh, my God. That is just too  _cute_."

At least I was  _hoping_  for a deep, serious discussion. Of course this would be one of the first things Kairi would blurt out to me.

I glanced around before turning to her warily. "Someone might hear you, Kai."

She only grinned at me. "Come on, admit it."

My cheeks grew hot while looking at the skirts. "Okay, maybe I was! But I was actually curious to see if her boyfriend was someone else one of my brothers magically became friends with." I shook my head. "I swear, they've gained about fifty plus friends since I've been gone." I didn't mean to sound resentful, but I had a feeling my words came out that way.

"They'll be more than willing to include you, you know. In fact, I remember Sora gushing to me about how excited he was to introduce his sister to his friends."

They put me on such a high pedestal. If they really knew who they were putting up there, they'd knock me down immediately. The thought made me sick to my stomach.

Kairi frowned for a second before placing a hand on my shoulder with a small smile featured on her face. "Look, I know how hard it is for you to make friends, but it'll be okay. Your brothers are not friends with bad people. If anyone messed with you, they would protect you in a heartbeat. Remember that."

Besides my mother, Kairi was the only other person who knew the truth—the  _whole_  truth. She called me on one of my really bad days at school, and I couldn't help but tell her everything while being a blubbering mess. It was honestly better than having no one and just keeping it to myself. I wouldn't have been able to handle that.

"That's why they can't know," I whispered to Kairi. I didn't give her much room to argue as I forced myself to continue looking for a suitable uniform to wear to school, despite I found one already. At least everyone else would be dressed in the same thing. It'd be less hard to blend into the background now.

After an hour or so later, our group got what they needed, and everyone agreed there was still plenty of time to look around before we had return to our homes.

Everybody was getting along with each other just fine. Even Xion seemed more open when she was talking with Roxas and Axel, compared to how she was with me when Kairi introduced me to her at first. Kairi and Aqua also seemed to be having a pretty decent conversation, with Riku mainly listening. Then they all looked like they were talking to each other at once, having a good time while I stayed silent towards the back. No one had even bothered to look my way.

I could feel the familiar feeling of loneliness, and how much it was making my heart ache. I knew I was the one mainly causing my own loneliness, but I couldn't help it. The action was instinctive now. While I'd take loneliness over other kinds of pain, it didn't mean it wasn't painful. Loneliness was still painful, especially when you were surrounded by other people who clearly weren't lonely.

Without even thinking, I disappeared into the women's bathroom in the mall.  _They won't even notice I'm gone_ , I thought bitterly to myself.

Coming in here made me realize I actually  _did_  have to go to the bathroom, though, so I quickly went in to relieve myself.

When I exited out, that was when things became awry.

I didn't watch where I was going, so I bumped into someone in the process. I was about to apologize when the voice spoke first. "Are you  _blind_?" the person sneered. "Some people are walking here and don't have time for—"

I stiffened, because that voice didn't sound like a stranger's.

" _Oh_ ," the person's tone of voice changed completely from annoyance to amusement, "well, well, well, if it isn't a small world after all."

Horror filled my entire body. No, no, no,  _no_. She couldn't be here. This wasn't happening. None of this could have been happening to me right now.

"What? You have nothing to say to me?" she asked in slight surprise, but I knew it was just an act. "That definitely wasn't the greeting I had in mind. Come on,  _little witch_ , show me that pretty face of yours."

She grabbed onto my chin tightly, forcing me to look up at her face. I tried to hold back the fear I was developing deep in my chest, because if I showed any, she'd use it to her advantage.

I met a girl with sharp green eyes and short blond hair with two individual strands standing out to look like antennas, wearing clothes fit for a girl who wanted to make a statement. She was a bit taller than me, with slightly fair skin, and her face would always scare me with that sadistic smile she always wore. She was a force to be reckoned with, and you never wanted to cross her path. Her name still brought chills whenever I heard it at Destiny High.

_Larxene_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I was kidding. I'm at least starting out with posting two chapters today, but I'm not going to post them all at once!


	3. Sharp Quips

"This just might be my lucky day."

Larxene began to walk closer to me after letting go of my chin, causing me to take a step back.

I didn't bother to say anything in response as my body shook a little, and my fears heightened when my back hit the wall.

"Aw, come on, Naminé, didn't you miss me back in Destiny Islands? Did you miss me so much that you decided to find me in Twilight Town yourself?" She feigned being touched by this thought, when that was the exact opposite of what I was feeling. "After leaving that pathetic place, I never thought I'd see you again." She smirked down at me. "I'm glad I was wrong."

A hand was placed next to me on the wall, while her other hand gripped tightly onto my left arm, making sure to keep me trapped with no ways of escaping her. I cowered slightly, trying not to hiss from the tight grip, while also feeling uncomfortable by the close proximity of Larxene. My throat felt dry, and it was hard to swallow let alone try and speak.

"So, what brings you here, Naminé?" asked Larxene.

I was glad I let Roxas carry my shopping bag, because I didn't want Larxene of all people to find out I was going to Twilight High. I could only hope and pray she wasn't going there too. "I-I'm just here with a few friends," I tried to say as coolly as possible.

" _Friends_?" she sneered. "Since when do you have friends?"

"Since now," I said, with only a little more confidence than before.

She contemplated that for a second before raising an eyebrow at me. "You know, school starts on Wednesday for Twilight High. A bunch of kids have been coming around to buy their uniforms. So, tell me, Naminé," she said now extremely close to my face, "are you one of those people?"

Those green eyes were pierced right on me, expecting a straight answer. If I could, I would have screamed. My breathing quickened, desperate to find a way to not have to answer her, because then she'd ask me which school. And, if it happened to be the same school she was going to, I didn't want her to know.

"Larxene?"

That voice sounded like another stranger, but at least this time it didn't make me stiffen. When I looked past Larxene, I met rather dark reddish eyes and pure white hair (or maybe we could label it platinum blonde) placed in a half up-do with some braids here and there. They belonged to a girl with incredibly pale skin (maybe almost as pale as her hair). Some part of me wondered if she was another angel in dark blue summer clothing. Her face appeared surprised, but the way she asked Larxene sounded rather delicate, like making sure you weren't trying to confront a lion instead of a kitten.

My eyes flashed back to Larxene. She gave a snarl of annoyance before barely glancing over her shoulder at the other girl. "What do you want, Nakahara?"

For a second, the girl's eyes looked calculating as she looked at me, then Larxene. She then rolled her eyes before saying, "Uh, my friend here,  _duh_."

Larxene's eyes widened, and then they narrowed. Slowly, she brought her face away from mine, let go of my arm, and turned to look at the other girl with a hand on her hip. "You know her?"

While my body was still shaking slightly, I was filled with confusion more than fear now. The girl scoffed. "Of course I know Naminé!" Her eyes gleamed a little as she smiled at me. "I was just looking for you! Come on, we gotta get back to the others." Without a second thought, she walked forward to reach past Larxene and grabbed hold of my hand, catching the blonde by surprise. I stared, not really knowing what to do as the girl placed her a little bit behind me, almost like she was protecting me from Larxene. "Thanks so much for keeping her company, Larxene, but I'll take it from here. See ya at school!"

With a wave and a glare from Larxene, I was pulled away from her with an arm wrapped around my shoulders. And then both me and this mystery girl began walking throughout the mall as quickly as possible before the girl felt confident Larxene was nowhere to be found.

"Sorry about that," the girl apologized to me. Her arm fell from my shoulders. "I know how Larxene can get, and you looked pretty uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine," I replied. "It was just surprising." Now that I felt a lot more calm, I also felt a little more alert. "How do you even know my name?"

The girl grew slightly wide-eyed, stopped mid-walking, and then turned to me apologetically. "Whoops! I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Lena. I know your name mainly from Cloud, but your other brothers can be pretty chatty too, more than he is."

There were a lot of moments in my life where I wondered if Cloud was actually a wall, because he was rather tall and muscular, and he didn't always say much. In fact, I think that was a joke we made in the family mostly because of Cloud.

" _It's like I'm talking to a wall!"_

Yeah, that sounds about right.

After letting that thought dissipate, I perked up at the sound of her name. "Lena? I think you're one of the people I was supposed to meet today." Only because I was curious, I asked, "Where did you even go besides the uniform store?"

Lena shrugged as she continued walking forward with me following after her. "Oh, I've just been browsing around. I already got my new uniform awhile ago, so the store was boring me, and I decided to explore elsewhere."

"Without telling anyone?"

She frowned then, appearing thoughtful. "I swore I told someone before I left."

" _Lena_!"

Throughout the crowd of shoppers, it wasn't the slightest bit hard to spot a familiar redhead staring at us. I watched as Lena stared back before waving casually and yelled, "Axel!"

We stopped walking while Axel raced over towards us, looking a little annoyed but also relieved. "Jeez, I've been looking everywhere for you! What happened to answering the damn phone?"

Digging into one of the pockets of her shorts, Lena brought her phone out and glanced at it before her eyebrows rose. "Huh, I guess I decided to put it on silent."

"You guess?"

She rolled her eyes. "Relax, Axel, it's not like I got lost or kidnapped or anything."

Axel scoffed before his eyes turned to me.  _Uh, oh._  "And where have you been? One second you were walking with us, and next thing we know Roxas is freaking out because you disappeared without a trace."

"I had to use the bathroom," I blurted out without even thinking. In a way, it was true, but I also knew it wasn't all of it. I just didn't have the heart to say the rest of it.

"Yeah, and I found her along the way because she got lost," Lena added. She was pretty good at lying.

_If I get to know her better, I need to develop the guts to ask her tips._

Axel narrowed his eyes at the both of us, probably wondering if what we were saying was the truth or not, but then his eyes glanced at me again and I saw something change a little. "Where did you get that mark from?"

What I didn't like about my pale skin, besides not being able to tan whatsoever, was the fact I knew I could bruise rather easily. I hated it, because it would more than likely be the first thing someone else would notice about me before anything else.

I glanced at my left arm, finding it was quite red where Larxene gripped hard onto it. Glancing back up at Axel, he looked rather suspicious. When I glanced at Lena, she didn't seem to know what to say except, "She ran into the bathroom wall."

"Was I asking you?" asked Axel. His eyes went back to me. "Well, Naminé?"

He couldn't know the truth, because then my brothers would possibly find out, and they'd make a bigger deal out of this then it should have been. So I bit the inside of my cheek, mustering up the courage to look at him in the eye without wavering. "Yes," I said as surely as possible, "that's what happened. I just ran into a bathroom wall a little too hard, that's all."

Axel stared at me for a few more seconds before giving a shrug. "Alright, fine, if you say so." He gave a side-eye glance at Lena, who just stared back. I believed a silent conversation happened between them for a few seconds before Lena declared we should start walking before someone ran into us.

"You know, you could have just said you were going to the bathroom instead of disappearing like that."

I glanced at Axel apologetically. "Sorry. I guess I'll keep that in mind next time."

"And  _you_  need to stop just randomly wandering wherever you want, Lena!"

Lena raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright,  _Dad_ , I'll keep that in mind for next time."

He shook his head before shoving her slightly. "Shut up,  _Mother Number Two_."

I really didn't want to interrupt their conversation, but my curiosity was beginning to get the best of me, and it wasn't fun being confused. "Why are you calling her that?"

Lena scoffed. "Within our group of friends, I'm one of the few that apparently dotes on everyone to the point I'm practically a mother."

Axel nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, and Aqua's Mother Number One while Aerith is pretty much Mother Number Three."

Conversation between the three of us died down for awhile, but it picked back up within a minute or two when Lena said, "So, Naminé, you thirsty?"

The random question made me a little stunned. I was used to them, because Sora did that all the time, but I didn't know Lena that well. So having it come from her wasn't expected. "Uh, I'm not really—"

"Axel," Lena said, "go and find me and Naminé some drinks."

Axel snorted. "What am I? your butler?"

A smirk fell on Lena's face while she digged for something in one of her short pockets. "Actually, I think you being in a maid's outfit would be a lot more fitting." She grabbed hold of Axel's hand and threw some money into it. "See? I'm even paying. You can get something for yourself too." She placed her wallet back in her pocket.

Not much of an argument could be held there, but I knew Axel wasn't completely comfortable with Lena getting her way. Yet he only sighed in defeat while clutching the money in his hands. " _Fine_. I know a soda machine not too far from here anyway." He pointed a finger at her, along with another at me. "Don't think this gives you both the liberty to wander off somewhere else now!"

"We won't," Lena assured him. "In fact, we'll go wait at the fountain up ahead for you. Also, get me a Coke while you're away." Her eyes turned to me. "What about you, Naminé?"

"Uh, just water's fine," I responded.

"Water, Coke, got it," Axel said.

"You sure you've got it memorized?" teased Lena while pointing to her temple with a finger.

"Very funny, Lena," Axel retorted with a shake of his head. He was about to walk away when he stopped, held a finger up, and walked back to us. "Oh, and another thing, you and I both know I would kick  _ass_  in a maid's outfit." On that note, he walked away a lot more triumphant than before.

I blinked. "I-Is he—"

"Like this all the time? Of course."

Lena and I stood by the fountain, just like she told Axel that was where we were going to be. Once she made sure we were alone, she turned to me with what seemed to be a rather serious look on her face. "I think we both know where that mark came from."

Since she was there that entire time during the Larxene situation, I felt my face grow rather hot. "Yeah," I muttered while glancing at it before looking back up at Lena. "I'm sorry."

Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "What are you sorry for?"

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that."

For some reason, that made Lena giggle. " _Me_? I should be the one telling you that. Larxene can be a serious force of nature whenever she wants to be, and I swear she comes up with any excuse she can to toy with others. I bet she was only messing with you just because you exist."

Oh, if only, then my life wouldn't be as complicated.

"Are you two friends?" I had to ask, because it sounded like she knew Larxene somehow, and maybe she'd give me a hint on why Larxene was in Twilight Town.

Lena snorted. "Well, kinda, I dunno. Funny thing is I set her up with Axel, but that relationship crumbled pretty quickly. And I'm one of the few that can talk to her without getting my ass whooped, but I wouldn't call us  _friends_." She wrinkled her nose at the thought. "I'd steer clear of her as much as possible if you're going to be attending Twilight High."

I grew wide-eyed, feeling my heart plummet into my stomach.  _I am so screwed._  "Do you attend Twilight High?"

"Yup!" answered Lena brightly. "I'm gonna be a senior this year, but I'm not going to school until Monday."

"How come?"

"I've just got some personal things to deal with, you know?"

I understood that quite well, since it was personal things that had me move from Destiny Islands to Twilight Town. So I only nodded my head, letting the sound of the water and clamor of people and other noises of the mall fill my ears.

"If you don't want me to, I won't tell anyone about what happened between you and Larxene."

I stared up at the girl in slight surprise. "You won't?"

She nodded her head to me, adding a confident smile along with it. "I promise. It'll just be between us. Not even Axel has to know about it, or your brothers either."

I gave her a small smile. "Thank you, Lena."

She gave me a wink. "It's not a problem. Girls gotta look out for one another, right?"

I let out a small laugh. "Right," I agreed.

It wasn't long after that Axel came back with our drinks. Despite what I learned about Larxene, I felt relieved otherwise. Someone, who didn't know me at all, was more than willing to get me out of a bad situation regardless. Even better, she didn't seem to want to interrogate me on what I had done to make Larxene react the way she did with me. She just made her own assumptions, guessed right I didn't want anyone else to know, and left it at that.

Sometimes it really felt nice to have someone else know what you're thinking without saying anything at all, and the person just leaves it at that.

Being around Lena and Axel became a lot better for me. They were both rather friendly, and they didn't even bother to bring up the bathroom situation again. Sometimes I would pitch in to say something, if they ever asked me anything, but other times I didn't. I just drank my water while listening to them talk to each other in amusement. I could see they were pretty good friends. It made me dare to think—maybe even hope a little—that I could have friends like them, or find it easy to make friends generally here.

Yet it was only wishful thinking, and I was definitely sure I was wishing for too much too soon.

After walking some more, we found everyone hanging out in the food court. I found Roxas's eyes before anyone else's, and I watched as his dark blue orbs glared at me from across the area. I stopped in walking, but I tried to give him a soft smile to show I was okay and fine. That Axel and Lena had found me. (Well, technically, Lena found me first. And then Axel found the both of us.)

He didn't smile back. Instead, he looked away from me and was all smiles for Xion.

My shoulders deflated, and guilt settled into my stomach. He was mad at me. This was technically the first day I was spending time with one of my brothers in Twilight Town in a long time. And I happened to make my brother mad at me within hours of being in the mall. We had worse fights than this, I knew that, but it still didn't feel good to know someone in my family was upset with me.

I walked forward anyway and decided not to say anything until I reached the table. Kairi was the first to notice me and said, "Hey, Naminé! I see Axel was able to find you." She laughed as her eyes fell on Lena. "I guess I mean the both of you."

"It wasn't that hard," Axel answered with a shrug. I could tell he was clearly proud of himself otherwise.

"Try saying that whenever you dared to play hide and seek with me when we were younger," Lena countered, making Axel give her a look.

"So where did the bloodhound find you?" asked Aqua. Her tone was slightly teasing, and Axel frowned just to get the others to laugh.

"As I was walking out of the bathroom," I answered sheepishly. "Lena found me being a little lost, and then Axel found the both of us."

That was when the blue-haired girl noticed something else. "Hey, where did that bruise come from?"

I wasn't sure it was a bruise quite yet, but it was more than likely going to form one anyway. If I could, I would have sweatdropped, but I made sure to keep my cool and act casual. "This?" I gestured to my left arm. "Oh, uh, I just bumped into a wall. That's all. I guess it's formed a bruise on me."

Aqua raised an eyebrow at me, but she didn't question me further. "Oh, I see." Her eyes glanced at Axel, who only looked away from her and went to talk with Roxas and Xion. Then she glanced at Lena who only smiled innocently before going to talk with Riku, who seemed to be staring at me until Lena intervened. I hoped Lena would keep her word. I didn't need Aqua to know.

"You wanna get some food?" asked Kairi. I didn't need her knowing either, even if she was my best friend.

"No thanks," I told her. "I got some food before coming here." I somewhat did before getting ready, if we wanted to count toast as food. When I got nervous, food became a nonexistent thought for me.

Kairi didn't seem to believe me, but she smiled nonetheless. "Okay!"

"Are you sure?" My eyebrows rose when I realized Xion was the one asking me. I thought she was talking with Roxas and Axel, but it turned out they were simply talking to each other and not paying her much attention. "You could have some of my fries, if you want. I don't really want them."

For some reason, I couldn't think of saying no to her. "Um, thanks, Xion," I thanked her with a smile. She smiled back at me as she handed me her fries. As the transition happened, Kairi looked smug and—oh,  _no_ —she wasn't giving me  _that_  face, was she? I wanted to pretend she wasn't. Yet I swore Aqua's gaze was identical to Kairi's, but there wasn't much for me to go on since I just met her. Lena seemed to be joining them too, even if she was talking to Riku.  _Ugh_. Axel appeared oblivious while I swore Roxas was still giving me the stink eye, possibly even more than before.

All I did was take the French fries and began eating them while Xion turned back to talk with Axel and Roxas again, as if nothing had happened.

When I had the chance, I was going to kill Kairi, because I was sure I knew what she was thinking.

* * *

To make things less awkward—and because I  _knew_  Kairi wanted to talk some more—I was convinced to take a ride back from the mall with her, Xion, and Riku. So Axel and Roxas were riding back alone, along with Aqua and Lena.

Kairi proceeded to tell me more about what was going on with her over the summer while in Twilight Town since the last time we talked (which was only a couple of weeks ago). Texting, IMs, and phone calls with the occasional video chat always sufficed with us. However, I knew it was a lot different when Kairi and I were face-to-face, because it really felt like we could talk about anything. I mainly listened as she went on, sometimes with Riku or Xion cutting in, but then they'd have their own conversation up front with Xion pushing him every once in awhile. It made me tilt my head to the side and stare, not helping but speculate if they were just friends or something more.

_You do too much people-watching sometimes. It can get creepy._

Well, when no one really talked to you, you learned to adapt with the environment and pay more attention to the world around you. So it became a habit now more than anything. It couldn't be helped. But still, it felt a little creepy when people-watching sometimes, especially if the other person or people noticed that's what you were doing.

Once we reached my house, Kairi assured me she'd either text me later tonight or tomorrow morning, because there was apparently  _more_  we needed to talk about. I was confused for a second on what she meant until she winked at me, proving I knew exactly what she was up to. I said my goodbyes before grabbing hold of my shopping bag filled with my uniform clothes and exited out to head towards my house.

Using the key we kept in a plant near the front door, I walked inside and went straight to my room without a word. It didn't matter who was in the house at the time, I just didn't feel like talking to anyone right now, since I had time to myself to reflect on what happened today.

How was I going to survive Twilight High if Larxene was going to be around? I could only hope she was the only one.  _And_ he _didn't follow after her._  Lena advised for me to stay away from her as much as possible. That was the goal, but it didn't mean Larxene would do the same. I could only hope for the best, and pray she wouldn't do anything to me like in Destiny Islands. Besides, I was alone in Destiny Islands. Here, I had my brothers and Kairi, along with these new people I'd met, but it wasn't like I was friends with them or anything like that yet.

Still, I couldn't help but let out a breath of frustration while throwing my shopping bag carelessly to the floor, before jumping on my bed facedown.

I felt my phone vibrate in my capris, and took it out to find a new text message from an unknown number. Curious, I opened it.

_Make sure you ice that bruise for the next day or two, otherwise it might appear worse than it should be. Trust me, I've got my fellow share of bruises too! Oh, this is Xion, by the way. Kairi gave me your number because I wanted to give you some tips. See you at school Wednesday!_

She even bothered to add a smiley face, and all I could do was blink, not really knowing how to react to it. I eventually just smiled softly, texting her back how I was thankful for the tip, and made note to add her to my contacts on my phone, so I wouldn't be confused again.

I'd have to try and talk to Roxas tomorrow, because trying to do anything today wouldn't give me good results. He had a tendency to hold grudges, but I couldn't think of any reason why he would hold one against me now. Then again, it wasn't hard for Roxas to develop a grudge whatsoever. Honestly, though, I would just have to wait and see.

As much as I didn't want to think it, I believed Wednesday would begin my new place in hell.


	4. The Beginning of a Nightmare

Whoever tells you that waking up for school on a Wednesday morning is better than Monday morning is a liar.

Sleep wasn't coming easy for me at all for awhile, so it wasn't easy for me to sleep last night. I ended up waking up for what felt like the thousandth time at five o'clock in the morning. Figuring I wasn't going to get anymore sleep anytime soon, I decided to use the time I had now to get ready.

I was thankful I had a bathroom in my room all to myself, so I didn't have to worry about sharing it with any of the other boys. I let out a heavy sigh as I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and prepared myself for the day ahead of me. I got into my uniform, which consisted of a dark blue tie and white button shirt, with a blue patterned skirt in mainly dark blue. I made sure to place my dark blue socks up high to my knees as I put on my black shoes before going to comb my hair. The uniform definitely felt weird, since I didn't have to wear one for Destiny High, but having a uniform was probably better this way.

Once I was ready, I took the time to go downstairs for breakfast. Of course, I didn't feel like eating much of anything because I was so nervous, but I bothered to grab an apple of all things.

"So, Nami, are you gonna take the bus, or do you already have someone to ride with?"

I had almost completely and totally spaced out until I had realized it was Ventus speaking to me. "Huh? Oh, uh, Kairi offered to give me a ride. So I'm good."

"You sure?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah," I assured him.

I wasn't even close to good, but I couldn't let Ventus—or any of my other brothers—know that. I didn't want to be the one to cause frowns on their faces. I wanted to do that in the least amount possible for today, since I felt I screwed just about everything up the day before. Which reminded me, Roxas wasn't bothering to look at me at all, even when I made eye contact with him.

This apple I was eating was suddenly harder to swallow.

Once I was done with breakfast, Kairi texted me that she was waiting outside. I said goodbye to my family after that, minus my dad, since he went to work already. I grabbed hold of my school bag and walked out the door to find Kairi waiting in that fancy silver car of hers. Kairi waved at me and I waved back as I got closer before opening the passenger door to sit next to Kairi.

"Hey, Nami!" greeted Kairi as I got in.

I gave her a smile. "Hey, Kai."

Before she started the car, she handed me a Starbucks drink out of nowhere, appearing to be grande sized and filled with caramel. (Starbucks was literally everywhere, even in Twilight Town.) "I decided to get you something before arriving here." I looked down at the cupholders between us to find one of them was mocha, telling me right away that was definitely Kairi's.

"Wow, thanks," I said in slight surprise. But then my eyes narrowed. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

Kairi started the car, and as we began driving down the road, I watched her cheeks redden slightly. "Not much, since Sora and I were up late talking."

I couldn't help but giggle at that. "Was it worth it?"

Despite how embarrassed she felt, I knew she was happy about it too. "Oh, yeah, it was definitely worth it." While beginning to sip some of my caramel coffee, she asked me excitedly, "Are you ready for our junior year of high school?" Her eyes gleamed as she kept them focused on the road. "This year we'll actually get to go to  _prom_!"

I refrained from rolling my eyes. It shouldn't have been a surprise for that to be one of the first things Kairi was thinking about. After all, she could go with Sora now. "Still, I heard it's one of the hardest years in your high school career."

Kairi scoffed and waved it off. "We have each other to help out with grades and stuff, right? Besides, Aqua is pretty good with school subjects like math. While she's in AP Calculus, I think she can help us out with Pre-Cal."

"There's always Ven," I said. "He always does pretty good in school, so you could always ask him."

That conversation died down quickly, but Kairi easily led us into another. "You're more than likely going to bump into more of our friends at Twilight High, Naminé. I mean, you weren't even close to meeting all of them yesterday! I'm sure one of them will be more than willing to help you out during class, so there's nothing to worry about."

That didn't mean my mind wasn't screaming for mercy still. "Oh, well, that's good."

"I'll be able to introduce you to some during lunch!"

I needed to keep a mental note to take the longest time to get to lunch. Getting there first thing would only overwhelm me to the point of going into cardiac arrest, I was sure.

We made it to the school within the next twenty minutes. My family didn't live too far from it, but we weren't too close for short walking distance. From inside of the car, I could see bunches of students walking towards the school or hanging out on the outside of it. A few parents were with their children, probably the freshman, and others were simply dropping them off. The school seemed rather big, much bigger than my school back at Destiny Islands. All of it was intimidating for me, and I could feel myself wanting to throw up and race back home.

"You'll get used to it after a week," Kairi assured me. "After going to the local elementary in their part of town, the boys adjusted to Twilight High pretty well."

"They did?"

"They're pretty popular, actually."

My eyebrows rose at that. They were  _popular_? All of them had neglected to mention that. Cloud I could understand, but was she talking about my twin brothers too?

"Y-You mean—" I began.

"Not just Cloud," Kairi confirmed.

I didn't know what else to say except, "So, are we going to head inside or what?"

Kairi nodded her head in agreement. Once we found a good parking spot, Kairi and I got out of the car, grabbing practically empty coffee drinks by this point.. After we grabbed our bags and Kairi locked her car, we began walking over towards the campus, dumping our empty drinks in a nearby trashcan. I hung onto my bag for dear life, as if it would protect me from all these strangers I didn't recognize.

I swore there were even more kids on the inside than the outside when we came in through the doors. A bunch were walking through the halls, some hanging out at their lockers, and a few also talking with other kids they probably knew. Kairi stayed with me to make sure I got to my locker okay, thankfully, and didn't leave me alone with all these people.

"There's really nothing for you to worry about, Naminé," Kairi assured me. "You should be able to adjust here just fine. I mean, your brothers are pretty popular, so you'll probably become just as popular too!"

It was a lie, and we both knew it. I couldn't be anything like my brothers, one of the reasons I felt so out of place when I hung out with them sometimes.

"Yeah, I guess." I grabbed hold of my books that I needed for my first hour when I remembered something. "I have to check in with the office, since I'm new and all."

"I'll come with you!" exclaimed Kairi with a bright smile.

I stared at her. "You don't have to, Kairi, besides I don't want to make you late to your first class."

Kairi snorted while waving me off. "Oh, please, I have the perfect excuse—I was late because I had to show someone around the school. It'll be fine, and I don't want to leave you to do this alone anyway."

I smiled at her in appreciation as I closed and locked my locker. "Thanks, Kairi."

She grinned. "It's never a problem, Naminé."

* * *

There was just a bit of paperwork for me to go over. The main receptionist was a little bit shocked when she realized I was a Strife. She wondered how many of us there really were, but I assured her there was only five of us, with four of us being quadruplets. Then she remembered one of the boys mentioning me before. In fact, all of them apparently mentioned me at some point, whether by name or mentioning they had a sister. It still fascinated me a bit how my brothers actually talked about me to other people just because, not for any specific reason.

Once I was done, I was supposed to meet Principal Xemnas, but he appeared to be busy. So my anxiety was able to settle for a bit, until Kairi directed me to World History with Mr. Hook, and then she had to head on over to her class. I wished she didn't have to leave me alone, but I knew I'd have to face the music sooner or later.

As I entered inside the class, I already saw there were a few students in there already, along with a seating arrangement we had to follow on the board. Once I took my assigned seat, I set my history book on the table and went to get other materials out to prepare for my first class, making sure not to make eye contact with the other students coming in. I wasn't in the mood for an awkward eye-staring contest.

"Hi."

I slowly turned to my left in surprise to find a girl sitting next to me with brown hair. There were bangs above her green eyes, and her hair was styled in a way that was layered and really suited her against her fair skin. It was interesting, seeing someone else with green eyes. Her eyes were a darker green, but it was still refreshing compared to the many blue-eyed people I knew, especially within my family.

She had a friendly smile on her face, and I immediately felt awkward. What was I supposed to do? Didn't she just say hi to me?

Wait, was I supposed to say hi back?

"Um, hi."

Sometimes I felt so awkward it was painful.

"I'm Olette," the girl introduced herself.

"It's nice to meet you, Olette," I said politely. "I'm Naminé."

Olette giggled. "It's nice to finally meet the infamous Strife sister." My face grew red. Just how many people even knew about me? "I'm friends with your brother Roxas."

Roxas. The thought of him made me sour and filled with guilt, but at the same time I was also curious. So she was another one of his friends? "My brothers really seem to have made a lot friends," I whispered casually.

"Yeah, that includes Hayner and Pence, who are also my friends too. If you ever meet them, tell them you know Olette. It should get Hayner to warm up to you a bit better, in case they have no idea who you are."

"So are you just friends with Roxas, or is there more than one brother?"

Olette thought about it for a bit before whispering to me, "Well, technically, I guess I'm friends with just about all of them. Cloud, not so much, he's got his own friends to hang out with. I'm definitely really good friends with Ven, even Sora! But that's because Riku's my stepbrother, and the two have been best friends for God knows how long."

Now there was one name I did recognize. "Riku?"

The brunette rolled her eyes at the thought of him. "Ugh, yeah, he can be a total—"

"Hello and welcome to World History class. My name is Mr. Hook." A man at the front of the room, wearing a questionable outfit, who also had long curly black hair and a black mustache and dark eyes. I didn't know what to make of him really. All I knew was that meant Olette and I had to stop talking. She mouthed to me that we could talk later. I didn't really know if we would, but I bothered to nod my head to her anyway before making sure to pay attention.

My stomach felt a little fluttery as I realized something.

I think I made a new friend.

_Maybe a new school won't be so bad after all._

* * *

After that, the rest of my classes turned out alright. At least, the ones before lunch. Once my history class was over, Olette and I shared our goodbyes before she went to her next class, while I headed over to AP Literature.

This was a class with someone named Mr. Merlin. He was an elderly man with a long beard and dressed in rather strange clothing too, but it wasn't as questionable as Mr. Hook's. The man also could be incredibly eccentric, going on tangents during class, but he got along rather well with his students. And it seemed his students respected him in return. The class had an enjoyable atmosphere like that.

Since the class mixed with seniors and juniors, there were a few people that recognized me. It didn't help there were people like Axel and Aqua in that class. There was also this girl named Aerith, who I was told to sit by. Right, Cloud's girlfriend. I never actually met her, but I heard a bit about her. She seemed nice, and she was rather friendly with me too. She even offered to help me with the summer assignments we were supposed to have done, and Mr. Merlin was gracious enough to give me time to complete it and still give me full credit. Since I didn't know for sure if I was going to Twilight High till later on, and I was dealing with quite a few issues in my life, I was thankful to be given the extra time.

My third period was a free period. Students who worked hard enough could earn themselves one, and I happened to be one of the few students who did. All I did was take a breather by spending time in the library. The librarian there was named Belle, and she was rather nice too. I decided to look at some of the novels I was supposed to work on for AP Lit to make some time pass by.

Then I had French with Mr. Lumiere. He was rather charismatic and friendly to the classmates. I took a bit of French before, when they offered it for awhile at Destiny High. When they stopped, I tried to do it in my free time. Mr. Lumiere was impressed with what I learned so far. Some kids even came to me for help during class. They said I should become a French tutor, but I didn't think so. I was only trying to help, even though I didn't know any of them.

To summarize it, everything was fine before lunch. During lunch, however, things went downhill.

I took awhile going to lunch, since Mr. Lumiere wanted me to stay after to tell me a few things, but it didn't take him long. So I had time.

I was used to cafeterias being loud. That was how they were supposed to be, but the second I entered inside Twilight High's cafeteria, I swore it was much louder than the cafeteria back at Destiny High. So many kids were inside, talking amongst themselves, walking around to get their lunches; it was definitely overwhelming for me. It didn't help that I was the new kid—a new _Strife_  kid—so some people already spotted me and began whispering among themselves.

My cheeks grew warm, and I wondered how much I could really handle this—everyone knowing who I was. Not to mention there were so many people. There were a lot more kids here than Destiny High.

Suddenly, I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. My whole body stiffened. Since there were so many more kids in this school, you were bound to catch one or two you knew would ruin you if you ever associated with them.

But I should have known I would see her sometime during the day. I just hoped it would be so much later, maybe towards the end of the school day. I spotted the familiar short blonde hair with two distinct hair pieces coming out of her head like antennas, looking around the cafeteria with those sharp green eyes of hers.

Images of what happened yesterday ran through my mind faster than a train, and I panicked. I wanted her to leave me alone. I didn't want her to see me. So I took a shaky breath and ran out of the cafeteria as fast as I possibly could.

I had no idea where I was running to. My only focus was running away as far as possible, and I hoped no one would try to find me either. I just wanted to be alone, and I didn't want to be bothered.

At one point, the running had become extremely exhausting, so I decided to sit on the stairs of the school to try and catch my breath. No one was bothering to come through here, so I was hoping that I was safe for now.

It was amazing, really, how something so simple as seeing someone you weren't a big fan of could ruin your day. With a sigh, I placed my head in my hands.

Then I heard footsteps.

My whole entire body stiffened again, and I held my breath. From the sounds of it, it was coming from upstairs. Slowly, I took my hands away from my face and got up from the stairs to step down as quietly and quickly as possible. However, I was so terrified that I slipped and let out a small squeak, making me grow wide-eyed at my screw up.

"Naminé?"


	5. So Many Questions

_Sora_.

Sora was the one sent to look for me. Why did it have to be one of my brothers? It didn't help it was Sora. If he caught me and asked me what happened in the cafeteria, I definitely wouldn't be able to lie to him. I hated lying to him the most, because the look on his face would tear me apart more than anything.

Without another word, I braced myself and made a run for it faster than before. I heard footsteps chase after me just as fast—if not faster. All those boys had been on the track team at some point. Ven was the fastest, but Sora came rather close. As for me, I wasn't sporty at all, but I tried my hardest to outrun him. I couldn't let him catch me.

Once I made it down the stairs, I hid behind a corner and pressed my back against the wall as much as possible. While trying to catch my breath, I listened for Sora. There was loud, pounding footsteps within seconds, and I heard a small squeak before they completely stopped.

"Naminé?" called out Sora again. "Naminé, come on, why are you running? Kairi's really worried about you. She's wondering why you ran off." I didn't answer or dare to move from my place behind the wall. "Seriously, Nami, what's the problem?"

_Please go away, please go away, please go_ away, my mind was screaming. I closed my eyes tightly as my breaths became shaky while my whole body shook, and prayed Sora wouldn't come any closer.

Sora let out a sigh of defeat before saying, "I guess she's gone then." Without another word, I heard his footsteps disappear. Tentatively, I peeked out from behind the wall to indeed find he was nowhere to be found. I let out a sigh of relief while placing a hand against my face. That was too close. He would probably badger me about it later, but that would be later. I'd have time to think of a plausible excuse by then, and maybe for once I could lie to him without having it tear me apart.

_I didn't try hard to control my emotions back at Destiny Islands for nothing. Along with a few other things I learned…_

* * *

During the entire lunch period, I just wandered around. With everything that happened in such a short amount of time, I lost my appetite. I even spent a bit of time in the bathroom, since no one really bothered to check the bathrooms during lunch. And, thankfully, no one was really in the girl's bathroom to bug me. So I was safe, for now, but I knew I would have to head onto my next class eventually.

My next class was chemistry with Ms. Maleficent. Her skin was incredibly pale, her cheeks were high and hollowed out, her eyes were a bright, practically electric green, and her lips were blood red. She seemed extremely intimidating. It made me question if I'd feel welcome in this class or not.

From how this class was going to turn out, I found out I wouldn't be.

First off, this was the one class the "quad Strifes" happened to be taking, from the looks of it. Everyone was seated in the regular classroom with two to a large table suitable for experiments and things. Those hard stone tables, I guessed I could describe them. I was able to spot Sora and Roxas sitting next to each other at one table, with Ven seated next to this really tall guy at another table in front them, having a separate table in between them from Roxas and Sora. He had dark brown hair styled a certain way, with striking blue eyes. He was also very muscle-y, which reminded me something.

" _When you meet him, you won't miss him. He's a tall, muscle-y guy. Dark brown hair, blue eyes, looks like he might kill you—yeah. He's pretty cool, though, and he goes by the name Terra."_

Could this have been Aqua's boyfriend, as well as one of Ven's friends?

I sensed his eyes were turning to look at me, and I quickly looked away. I couldn't handle awkward eye contact.

My blood ran cold, though, when I recognized someone else in the room.

She was seated next to a guy with a lot of silver-blue hair slated in his face, mainly over his right eye. He didn't seem to be paying attention, though. He was indulged in the chemistry book. However, she had her gaze fixed right at me, and I wanted to melt into a puddle and die.

Just when I thought I could avoid her at lunch, of course she happened to be in my chemistry class.

_There is just no avoiding Larxene, is there?_

I wanted to scream and run out of there, but I had no choice. If I did anything, everyone in the school would talk about it later on. Not to mention my brothers would interrogate me about it for God knows how long. So I forced myself to act like she wasn't there and focused on class.

This class also had assigned seating, and I just happened to have to sit behind Ven and be in front of Sora. What were the odds?

Ven was busy talking with Terra, but he did acknowledge me with a smile. I smiled back, not wanting to disturb their conversation as I went to take a seat and set my stuff down on the table.

"Things should be interesting since we all have this class together, huh, Naminé?" Sora commented with a grin as he turned away from talking to Roxas.

I gave him a smile as I glanced back at him. "I think things are always interesting when I'm around you guys."

Sora's grin grew a little wider, but then it lessened a bit when he turned to the empty seat next to me. "Oh, I guess Van's really not here today."

"Van?"

"Oh, yeah, he's another one of our friends—mainly Ven's, honestly," Sora replied. "I'm sure Ven can tell you all about him sometime, or Van could tell you himself, whenever he actually shows up."

I thought (and hoped) Van must have been shorter than his actual name, and that it also wasn't anywhere close to similar to Ventus. It was already confusing to hear Van and Ven in the same sentence.

The second class started, I was surprised how quiet everyone became. Maybe there was a whisper or two, but whenever Ms. Maleficent's eyes landed on the person, he or she would be deathly quiet afterwards. Well, keeping quiet would definitely not be a problem for me, but I knew it could be a problem for one specific person, and he was sitting behind me. (Ms. Maleficent already gave him a look a few times already, and we were barely fifteen minutes in with class.)

Nothing much happened except for a basic introduction, not to mention adding homework onto it. What really surprised everyone, though, was that we were given time to work on some of it in class—within groups of two to three no less. I glanced around the room awkwardly, finding just about everyone had two to a table except me. Sometimes I swore whenever we had to gather in groups for a class that it especially had to be made difficult for me.

"Hope you don't mind if we join you, Naminé."

I looked up in slight surprise to find Ven and Terra turned their chairs around to sit across from me as I began working. Even if I said no, Ven would have turned his chair over anyway. Some of those boys could never stand me being alone sometimes.

Once they got themselves situated, I wasn't really sure to do next. There was a second where things felt a little awkward, and none of us seemed to know what to do or say. It made me look down and try to concentrate on my homework. At least, that was plan until Ven's eyes went wide before turning to the boy sitting next to him. "Oh, before I forget, Terra, meet my sister Naminé. Naminé, meet Terra."

Even though it looked like he was about to kill me, he gave me a friendly smile. "It's nice to finally meet the sister Ven and his brothers talk so much about."

Before I even knew what I was thinking, I blurted out, "And it's nice to meet Aqua's boyfriend!"

_Oh, no._

Terra's face grew a little red while Ven looked like he was about to drop his pencil or something. I regretted what I said immediately and added, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I just—Xion told me about you and I—"

"It's fine," Terra assured me. "It's just unexpected, because that's usually not the first thing someone says to me." Of course not. I could totally not tell from the way you reacted.

"I'm really sorry," I said apologetically. I couldn't help but keep apologizing. I felt so embarrassed, especially since I seemed to have embarrassed him. "It won't happen again!"

Terra chuckled.  _Oh, great. He's laughing at me!_  "Don't worry about it, Naminé."

Ven let out a small laugh and said, "Don't be surprised if she still keeps apologizing to you the rest of the day." Then he smiled and added, "Or if she bakes you 'I'm sorry' cookies or something."

If I wasn't red before, I definitely was now.

And I felt the need to smack Ven in the face.

"We're just messing with you, Naminé, lighten up!" Ven told me with a grin. I barely smiled back at him. I'd have to order one of my brothers to smack him later, if I didn't lose my nerve by then.

After working for awhile, Ven thought it was an appropriate time to discuss something. "So, Nami, where were you during lunch?"

_He just keeps asking for it._

Why didn't anyone ever focus on their homework anymore?

My eyes glanced around, wondering if anyone was paying attention to us. It turned out everyone else was paying attention to their groups and/or assignments. Terra wasn't even really listening. He seemed to have gotten the gist of the homework, so it was really just me and Ven.

I tried to remember the lie I came up with, and I hoped it would be believable. It wouldn't be as hard for me to say, since Sora wasn't the one asking me (though I had a theory he put Ven up to this). "Huh? Oh, I decided to check out the library, since I have to catch up by turning in that summer assignment for AP Lit."

"Really?" asked Ven. "'Cause Sora went to look for you in the library, and he didn't find you there."

He was trying to trap me, and I knew it. I just had to make sure not to get caught up in my own lie. "Did he? Well, maybe he didn't look hard enough, 'cause I was there."

There was a tired sigh from behind me, and I turned my head to find it was Sora. "No, you weren't, Naminé. I asked Belle. She said you were there during your free period, but she didn't see you during lunch." His eyes stared at me, and I recognized the look.

He was disappointed in me, along with slightly concerned.

No, no, no,  _no_. I didn't need that. I didn't need for him to be concerned about me, and I definitely didn't need him disappointed in me. That's what I had been trying to avoid, and it was only the first day.

"W-Well, it's always been joked I practically wear Harry Potter's invisible cloak all the time, so maybe she didn't see me come in!" Okay, now I was definitely just scraping for answers to come up within my brain. I was really hoping this wasn't how this would go.

"Stop lying."

The voice was rather quiet, but it also sounded a little angry. I was only a little surprised when I realized it was Roxas. I was shocked he was even talking to me now, so I couldn't help but ask, "What?"

His blue eyes glared at me. "Stop  _lying_ , Naminé. You've been doing it ever since Axel found you and Lena at the mall yesterday—after you thought it was okay to wander off, by the way. I just don't understand why you don't want to make new friends. Nobody's stopping you! Was running off from the cafeteria just another sign? Do you think you're too good to even meet or be friends with our friends too?"

I didn't enjoy when Roxas did this. He had a tendency to bottle up his feelings until they exploded at the worst moments. Out of all of us, he had the nastiest temper. Cloud came in second, depending on the situation. If those two ever got angry with each other, I knew it would become hell right away.

I was speechless, since I had no idea that's what Roxas was thinking that day in the mall, and continued thinking it till right now. "N-No, Roxas, no! I never—I never thought that way," I finally murmured.

"Roxas, this isn't how we—" Sora began in a reprimanding voice.

Roxas wouldn't listen. "Then just what is your  _problem_? You've been acting weird since you got that bruise!" He gestured to my left arm, where the bruise was barely noticeable with how much I covered it up, but if someone looked closely, they could find it.

"Um, guys, I think we should—" I heard Terra say and watched as he glanced elsewhere out of the corner of his eye.

His words were ignored.

"Wait, what bruise?" asked Ven. His voice went the tiniest bit higher and his eyebrows rose high. At least no one actually told him what happened, much to my relief.

"The one she has covered up," Roxas answered. He gestured to my left arm towards where the bruise was. I covered it instinctively, especially when I felt more than one pair of eyes now land on it.

In moments like this, there were times I was cruelly reminded what else Roxas could be.

He could be a complete and total asshole.

Sora and Ven appeared genuinely shocked. The same went for Terra. I could see out of the corner of my eye by the way his eyebrows rose just a little bit.

As I kept my hand over the bruise just a little tighter without hurting it, I gave Roxas a look. "Roxas, stop it!" I hissed lowly. If he didn't quit it, he would drag attention towards us and possibly get us all in trouble.

His eyes narrowed at me. "I'll stop it when you stop lying! How did you really get the bruise? I know you didn't just bump against a bathroom stall."

This really couldn't be happening to me right now. My mouth went dry, and forming words felt like zipping up a stubborn, stuck dress.

"I—I—"

"Didn't I say you were allowed to form groups of two the three, not four to five?"

The sharp, clear sound of Ms. Maleficent's voice sounded throughout the classroom, making not just us all become quiet, but everyone else around us. All their eyes were beginning to glance at us now, but I just kept my gaze at Ms. Maleficent.

"Uh, yes, Ms. Maleficent," Ven was the first to answer. "Sora just needed a little bit of help on something." He fiddled with his pencil, and I knew then anyone who didn't know him could easily tell how much of a lame excuse that was. Sora was even staring at him like he decided to put that pencil up his nose.

Ms. Maleficent stared at him, unamused and rather irritated. "I'm sure your brother is more than capable of doing his homework on his own or with the aid of his other brother, no?" She side-eyed Sora and Roxas when she said that, particularly keeping her gaze on Sora.

"Y-Yes, Ms. Maleficent," Ven answered sheepishly.

"Good," Ms. Maleficent replied. "Why don't you all stick with your respective groups then?"

I found it best not to say or mutter a single word as we all went back to work, as did everyone else, with some whispers thrown in here and there now.

I never felt so embarrassed in my life.

"I tried to tell you," Terra muttered.

"She's still a hag," I heard Sora mutter after him.

They both got balls of crumpled up paper thrown at their heads, and they both gave Ven a look while he innocently kept working on his homework.

In his own way, I knew he was scolding them for not just getting him in trouble but getting all of them in trouble. I'm sure he'd personally express it to Roxas later.

* * *

"Remind me to have a serious talk with Sora later about chemistry class."

I grew wide-eyed at Kairi as I sat next to her in Pre-Cal. I was lucky enough to have this seating arrangement for this class. "What? No, Kairi, don't—"

"He seriously needs to learn to keep his mouth shut!"

I blinked. Was that all she was concerned about? "Kairi, you're no better."

"Hey, at least I'm courteous enough to just pass notes."

"Yeah, but sometimes you  _still_  get caught regardless."

I glanced to my left to find Ven was situated in his seat like the chart said. At the moment, I wasn't sure what to do or say since Roxas was so kind as to blurt out about the bruise last class. So who knew what Ven thought of me now?

I could tell Kairi didn't know what to do for a second either. She glanced at me, letting us have a short mental conversation before she nodded and turned back over to Ven with a scoff. "Shut up, Ven! We all can't be a perfect A student like you."

"You know Ven has a point, Kairi," I added, giving her a teasing smile.

She stared at the both of us before rolling her eyes. "Wow, Nami, you're such a great friend."

I shrugged and glanced in Ven's direction to see him give me a small, soft smile. I smiled back at him, revealing that things were okay between us.

Our teacher for this class was named Mr. Eraqus. He seemed rather nice. His hair was black and tied up a certain way, with a part of it that was curly and against the right side of his face. He had a black mustache, along with a few scars on his face, but I made sure not to pay attention to those. His skin was rather tanned too. What was rather relieving was he wasn't wearing questionable clothes like the previous teachers I had.

After a bit of teaching, he told us to work on some problems in groups of six to eight. When we were done with those, we could work on the homework, but we had to stay focused and not goof off. Mr. Eraqus seemed like the type of man you wanted to respect and obey, and would strongly regret disobeying him otherwise.

"Come on!" urged Kairi. "I've already got a group we can form."

It turned out the group included the people around us. Kairi was at my right, Xion at my left (Kairi totally planned that), and Riku next to her (also not shocking). Then Ven sat next to him, with two other people next to Ven as well. First, it was a kid with dirty blond hair (in some places) in strange curls with dark eyes. He seemed a little angry, or at least would give you an attitude. The other guy next to him had spiky black hair held up by a headband with dark eyes as well, and was a little bigger than the others.

"Alright, just so you know, this is Naminé Strife. She's new, and she's also my best friend." Kairi's eyes landed on the guy with the curly blond hair. "So you better be nice to her."

"Why are you looking at me?" the guy asked.

"I'm not the one who has an attitude problem."

"Are you kidding me? Van is worse than me! Tell 'em, Ven!"

_There they go mentioning this Van character again._

Ven thought about it for a second before shrugging. "I don't know, Hayner. Van's gotten better over the years, whereas you don't seem to have improved at all." He gave a teasing smile, showing he was only joking.

The guy known as Hayner glared at him. "If we weren't in a classroom right now…"

"Anyway, Naminé, why don't I introduce you to everybody? You know Xion." She gave me a look as Xion smiled and waved at me. "The brooding guy next to her is Riku, of course." He gave a short wave at me before glancing elsewhere. "You know Ven, obviously. Then there's Hayner and Pence."

"Oh, Olette's told me about you two," I said casually.

That caught Hayner's attention. "Wait, you met Olette?"

"Yeah, we have history class together. It was my first hour." I gave him a smile. "She seems really cool."

Hayner scoffed at that. "Of course she is. She's our friend."

"Which means you must be pretty cool too," Pence said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Naminé."

"You too," I said politely.

"Okay, now that we've all been acquainted, it's time to work on these problems. So, maybe we should all pick a certain amount of problems, work on them for a few minutes, then compare and see what we get. How does that sound?" When the situation called for it, Kairi really could pull off being a leader.

There were a lot of  _yes_ 's and other answers that sounded positive.

Kairi smiled. "Awesome, let's get to it then!"

There actually weren't that many problems; there were only about ten. However, this told the group they probably weren't that easy of problems. Kairi told me the less problems Eraqus gave, the more challenging they were. Ten problems meant they were probably medium in difficulty, if not close to easy. Everyone had their own problem to work on, while Ven volunteered to take one more with Xion doing the same. I knew Ven was an expert at math, but what about Xion?

"Trust me, I'm usually asking that girl for math help at home than vice-versa, because it feels too embarrassing to ask Aqua," Kairi answered me. "Or Saix for that matter, since he's not much of a helper."

Deciding to focus on other things, I worked on the problem I was given. It required a lot of concentration for me, because I wasn't always the most skilled in math, but I was willing to try.

"Do you need some help?"

I almost jumped at the voice, but it was only Xion who asked me. "Huh? Oh, no, I think I can—" I stared at my problem "—well, maybe I need a bit of help."

Xion brought her desk closer to mine, making my face flush. She didn't seem to mind the closeness at all, which made it worse for me. Oh, if Kairi was bothering to pay attention to us now, I would never hear the end of it. The black-haired girl brought her worksheet close to mine, and I was surprised with what I found. She didn't just have her own problem done. Other problems on the worksheet were also done, with the exception of Ven's problems. I guessed Xion was respectful enough to wait until Ven was done to understand how he did his problems.

"Not the best at math, huh?" asked Xion. I expected her to be mocking me, but she only gave me a look of understanding. "It's okay, not everyone can be good with numbers." Once she gave a look to the rest of the group, she leaned in to whisper to me, "Hayner's actually the worst in our group. If he didn't have people like me, Ven, Pence, or even Olette, he'd be a goner."

_She's so close_. I could feel her breath against my ear, and it made my entire body shiver. Still, I couldn't help but let out a giggle when Xion did the same.

As Xion was explaining to me how to do the problem, I tried my hardest to focus. However, it became increasingly more difficult when I noticed the way her blue eyes shined as she spoke. Clearly, she really enjoyed explaining this math stuff.  _Just like I rather enjoy explaining French to people._

"Wow," I whispered, "you're a really good teacher."

She shrugged at that. "Eh, not really, I just know how to do these problems and try to explain it to others as best as I possibly can." A smile graced her face as she looked at me. "If you ever need more help, you can always come to me, if Ven isn't available anyway."

I stared at her, not knowing what to say. "Really? You don't have to, Xion, I don't want to trouble you."

"It wouldn't be any trouble at all, Naminé." She gave me a reassuring smile, making me not help but smile back a little. Some smiles could seriously be so contagious around here. In fact, hers was almost—radiant.  _Wait, was that even the word?_

"Hey, ladies, you done with your problems or what?" yelled Hayner.

Xion and I separated immediately. I felt my entire body grew warm, and I hoped my cheeks wouldn't become completely and totally red.

Our entire group went to compare answers with each other, and in the end we managed to complete the entire worksheet to the best of our ability. After we turned them in, we all placed our desks back to where they were before.

Of course, the second we started on our homework, Kairi thought it was the perfect time to share notes with me. And it wasn't the kind for math either.

_Where were you during lunch? I was really worried about you._

I really didn't want to lie to Kairi, especially since she was my best friend, but I didn't really know if telling the truth would make everything better. And I feared how she would react.

_I was at the library. No biggie._

Her eyes studied the note, and she gave me a look before writing down something else and threw the note back to me.

_Don't give me the same crap you told your brothers. I'm your best friend, Nami, so just tell me the truth._

I sighed heavily. Why did she always have to pull that card on me?

_You have to promise not to tell anyone, Kairi. It falls under "that" category._

When I tossed her back the note, she grew a little wide-eyed before writing me a quick response.

_I promise, Nami. I won't tell anybody!_

I took a deep breath, glancing around the room quickly for two seconds before writing a response back to her.

_I ran out of the cafeteria because I saw Larxene. Someone I used to know at Destiny High. When we were uniform shopping yesterday, I happened to bump into her when wandering off to the bathroom. At one point she grabbed me a little too hard on the arm, and she was going to...Lena saved me before she tried anything. So, when I saw her again today, I panicked and ran off._

I watched as Kairi read the whole thing. Her eyes darkened a bit, and I could tell she was concerned for me. I hated it, because I didn't want to worry her about things like this. I didn't want to worry anyone about it. It wasn't their problem to deal with.

_I'm so sorry, Naminé, but shouldn't you at least tell someone else about this? Larxene's usually not dumb enough to do anything in front of so many people, but she can get pretty aggressive besides being determined, and you can't run out of the place everytime she shows up forever. It'll raise questions._

Sometimes I really hated how right my best friend was.

_I'll just eat somewhere else then._

Reading the message, Kairi shook her head at me. I raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. She gave me a smile before scribbling something else down.

_Just sit with us for lunch from now on. We'll protect you. If Larxene or anyone else tries to mess with you, they won't._

I knew there was nothing else I could argue with. Kairi had a point, and I guessed I did have friends who would protect me, even if they didn't have to, along with not knowing the entire story first.

_Thanks, Kairi, you're a great friend._

She grinned at me.

_Your_ _**best** _ _friend, you mean._

* * *

The bad news was the rest of that class was uneventful. The good news was my next class was one I'd been looking forward to all day: art class.

The class was run by a teacher named Ms. Solberg (whose first name happened to be Elsa, because there were rare moments she didn't mind being called that supposedly). She was a really, really pretty lady. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, and her platinum blonde hair was in a French braid. Her clothes were mainly blue in color, and I partially had to wonder how she was an art teacher. Instead, she almost looked like a princess or something.

The room was filled with certain pieces of art the teacher received from other students. Some were even her own, and a few others were of other artists. There seemed to be a backroom, and the room was in all sorts of colors for an art room. I was surprised to find a few glass sculptures behind some glass windows that appeared to have never been opened, but the sculptures were kept nice and clean. Ms. Solberg must have cleaned them often.

"Naminé?"

I turned around to find Xion. "Xion?" I asked in return, sounding just as surprised as she was. "I didn't know you took art."

"I could say the same to you," she replied. "I'm into more of the pottery side of things, which is why this sketch thing is gonna be a pain, but I'll manage."

This was totally insane. First, I had math class with Xion, and now we had art together. "At least I have someone I know I can work on this sketch with now," I said. "Do you know what you're going to do for it yet?"

"I think so," Xion replied. "How about you?"

I nodded my head slowly. "I think so too, hopefully."

"Why don't we sit next to each other and help each other out? I bet you're an awesome sketcher, maybe even an artist in general."

"Oh, uh, I don't know about that," I replied softly.

Before I knew what was happening, she grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me forward. "Then let's found out, shall we?" She smirked before guiding us to a table to sit at together to begin working on our sketches.

I was beginning to figure out that the more I talked to Xion, the more comfortable I felt doing it. The same way seemed to happen with her too. She was a lot more talkative and didn't hold back from me as much. I wondered if she got like that with everyone. Roxas could be the same way sometimes. How did those two even become friends in the first place?

That was what I found myself asking Xion to pass a bit of the time here.

"We met in middle school, actually." I watched as she smiled at the memory. "I had scraped my knee, and I wasn't really used to asking for help. I was taught to fend for myself and not whine about it. Roxas found me by a tree, and he pointed it out and was genuinely concerned about me. He got me to a nurse, and reminded me that it was okay to ask for help every once in awhile. I didn't really talk with him after that. I wasn't very good with strangers, particularly back then.

"We literally bumped into each other freshman year here at Twilight High. Except, it wasn't him. It was actually Ven. So, when I got a really nasty bump on my head, Ven freaked out." Typical Ven. While Roxas would be worried, Ven went overboard. "He escorted me to the nurse, and we got to know each other better. He told me it was perfectly okay for me to assume he was Roxas; everybody does that at some point or another. Then I happened to have a class with Roxas after that. He asked what happened, talked to me about how Ven could be an idiot apparently, and then we just started talking about other things. Somewhere along the line, that's how the friendship came about."

It sounded like a rather funny story. If Roxas and I were even on good terms, I would have planned to ask him what his side of the story was. Either way, I found myself laughing a little at the thought. "That totally sounds like Ven. And he's definitely right. If you don't know them well, it's easy to get them confused with each other. Even if people do know them, though, there are still times people can't tell who's Ven and who's Roxas. It gets worse when they decide to pretend to be the other for the day."

"They've definitely done that more than once here," Xion replied to me with a small roll of her eyes. "At times, they got in trouble with Cloud, but otherwise they would be able to pull it off."

That reminded me of a story from when we were kids. "No, I need to tell you the first time they decided to try and pull it off and how much Cloud wanted to kill them!"

Throughout the rest of art class, we spent the time sharing stories, and I knew for sure right then what I was going to sketch that made me happy. I just hoped the finishing product would be good enough.


	6. Two Words

I guessed the universe decided to give me at least one class of freedom from all the drama I had to put up with today, because the last class of the day was going to throw it all back in my face.

That class was P.E.

I wasn't the most sporty kid. That belonged to the boys. Since it was my first year at Twilight High, however, I had to take at least a year of P.E. I had no idea how I would survive, but there was a lot of girls for P.E. class I knew. Kairi happened to be one of them, and she was at least a little sportier than me. Apparently Xion was very sporty, and Aqua was basically Supergirl. That's what Kairi told me when we were all getting ready. Class grades didn't matter when it came to this class, so there were some freshman mixed among us, maybe even a bit of sophomores and seniors, but I felt there were a lot of juniors and seniors in this class on purpose.

Our teacher was Mr. Phil, who was a rather short and stubby guy. He had no problem barking orders at people, but he was a bit kinder to us. I wondered if it was because of it being an all girl class.

I stood there awkwardly in my P.E. attire, which consisted of a white t-shirt and blue shorts. We wore high white socks that hit our knees, along with either white shoes the school gave us or our own sneakers. A lot of girls had their hair up in some way, like some messy ponytail or bun. Some didn't at all, such as myself.

Mr. Phil turned to us, holding up two fingers. "Alright, ladies, I got two words for you—dodgeball."

Wait, wasn't that only one word?

"And today we're gonna be playing with the boys' class. Mr. Cid and I agreed to spice things up a bit the first day," Mr. Phil announced to us. "So, girls, time to get out of the locker room and head over to the gym! The boys will be there shortly."

"Oh, God," I heard Kairi groan as we began heading our way towards the gym. "We did stuff like this a year ago, and it never ends well. When the girls and boys get involved in dodgeball, particularly the upper class, it's World War Three out there."

I grew wide-eyed. "Upper classmen?"

"Yeah," Xion answered me. "Our class is mainly just juniors and seniors. It's the exact same for the boys class."

That made me begin to panic. "So we might bump into—"

"Axel and Cloud and those guys? Yeah," Kairi answered for me.

I swallowed dryly. "So, basically, we might die?"

"Just get out in the beginning of the game and you should be fine."

"Try and get hit by someone who doesn't throw so hard, though," Xion told me. "Those guys can be ruthless. And don't even try to catch any balls to get them out. It's practically impossible."

"I'll keep that mind," I murmured. "I was never one for dodgeball anyway."

As we made our way inside the gym, the boys were already there. Going inside, I realized how large this gym was; it definitely seemed a lot bigger than the one in Destiny High. Seeing all the guys on one side of the gym, though, made it a lot more intimidating than I wanted. It didn't help  _all_  of my brothers were there, along with a few other boys I recognized, which included one in particular I did not want to see.

_Marluxia?_

There was no one else would have pink hair like that, or a face like that either. It was bad enough with having  _her_  here, but  _him_  too? Why did all my worst enemies have to exist at this school?

In case my heart wasn't racing before, it certainly was now.

_Crap, crap, CRAP._

That was only a small foreshadow of the worst that was about to come.

_Just don't think about it. You don't even have time to think about it. You have to ignore it._

"Naminé, are you okay?" asked Aqua. Of all people, I did not expect her to be the one to check on me.

"Huh? Oh, I'm totally fine." I gave her a smile for extra reassurance.

She smiled back at me. With one glance around the gym, she bent down to whisper into my ear, "I know you didn't get that bruise from bumping into a stall, Naminé. If you want someone to talk to, I'll be around. And don't worry, I wouldn't tell anyone your secret."

Without another word, Aqua went to another part of the gym, but it wasn't before she gave me a small wink. I just stood there, gobsmacked. If I wasn't sure she really knew I was lying about what happened at the mall yesterday, the truth was out now. She was Kairi and Xion's sister, so I could trust her, right?

Maybe if we were alone, I could try to talk with her after school— _maybe_. For now, though, I had to survive the last class of the day. All I had to do was simply let myself get out of the dodgeball game early, and I would survive. That sounded easy enough.

Mr. Phil yelled out the rules to us, reminding us the boundaries and regulations, and he seemed to especially warn the boys to not harm the girls. Mr. Cid then decided to blow the whistle, and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

_Let the games begin._

Why couldn't I be anything like Katniss?

The balls that were set up in the center of the gym quickly disappeared by the sound of thousands of sneakers squeaking and trampling against the court. It didn't help a bunch of guys were shouting, even a few girls. I could easily picture everyone in armor, with swords, shields, and other weapons, ready to clash and strike against each other. Yet all I saw were balls flying, and already many people were taken out. A lot of them were unfortunately girls, though. In a way, I guessed it was a good thing, because maybe they would be able to help take people out.

I wasn't paying attention much to the whole game, because it was in such a frenzy. I tried to stick close to the back, but then I ignored the area when boys began to fill up the outside boundary. I was tempted to purposely get myself out, but it was practically instinctive for me to dodge the balls and try to survive.

People like Axel were definitely scaring me during the game. He was showing practically no mercy to the girls. I noticed there were some guys, though, who were trying to be careful about it. Riku threw some fast balls, but I could tell he wasn't always trying to aim for the girls. In fact, I swore he threw some on purpose to make sure he missed. Sometimes I wondered if some of the guys were doing this because they didn't want to completely hurt the girls. Or they were only doing that to make sure they didn't get in trouble with the teachers.

Aqua and Terra were definitely enjoying themselves. I could see moments where they would smirk at each other, throwing balls at each other, as if challenging one another. Both of them would usually miss hitting the other person, but that was because they were being perfect dodgers, especially Aqua. I never knew how agile and flexible Aqua could be, and that Terra possessed so much strength that I worried about someone getting hit by one of the balls he'd throw.

The same seemed to be happening with Tifa and Cloud, which made me not help but raise an eyebrow. Tifa Lockhart was apparently another one of Cloud's good friends he made. She had dark eyes with long, very dark brown hair. She could be sweet, but I'd heard she could really kick your ass if you weren't careful. Sometimes I wondered if she was just friends with Cloud or something more. Which didn't make sense to me, because I was sure Cloud was dating Aerith. Oh, well. It wasn't my business to butt into his love life. Sometimes I was surprised he even had one, since he usually kept to himself.

My brothers were being the exceptional sporty people that they were. Ven was easily dodging those balls like I figured he would. Roxas and Sora were able to do the same, but they did better throwing the balls than dodging them, and were being rather competitive about it. I knew people like Sora and Ven were making sure not to hit me, for whatever reason, while Roxas wasn't even trying at all. In fact, I swore he was trying to hit me. Was he still that angry with me?

It felt like this dodgeball game was going on forever. I was tired of the screaming and the dodging and feeling like your life was going to end the second you got hit with a ball. And the boys just kept getting girls out piece by piece, even if it was only little by little. I guessed the good news was there was still some girls on our side, also getting some boys out. But the numbers were dwindling, especially for the girls.

Aqua took out Terra, much to his embarrassment, but then she finally got taken out by Axel. Tifa finally took out Cloud, but then she got hit by a guy named Seifer. That gave Larxene the perfect opportunity to get him out, though, and I didn't know whether to feel relieved or terrified—she even got Axel out.

"This is getting dramatic," Kairi muttered as we kept on dodging. "There's practically no one on this side left. All we've got is you, me, Larxene, and Xion."

"And the boy's side?" I asked breathlessly. Even if I could see them, I didn't even want to look.

Kairi's eyes narrowed as she kept on skillfully dodging. "There's Roxas, Sora, Ven, Marluxia, Riku, Hayner...that seems to be it. I thought Pence was still in, but—" her eyes took a glance behind her before facing forward "—oh, wait, nevermind! He got out earlier."

"So now what?"

"I don't know, but I can tell the teachers really want us to wrap this up. Can't help if we're good dodgers!"

It was after Kairi said that she had a ball hit her in the arm, and she looked up to find Riku smirking at her with a shrug. With that, Kairi groaned. "Ugh, Riku, you stupid piece of—"

"C'mon, Kairi, don't make a big scene!" exclaimed Mr. Phil as he blew his whistle. "Just get out of the area!"

Kairi rolled her eyes before giving me a look of  _Just-get-out-and-don't-do-anything-stupid_  for some reason before going over to the boy's side. Why would she give me a look like that? I didn't even understand.

I watched as Sora tried not to laugh at what just happened. The same went for Ven and Roxas too, along with Hayner. Marluxia didn't have much of a reaction. Riku just looked smug with what he did. I couldn't really blame him. He totally caught Kairi when she wasn't paying attention in the slightest. Instead, she was talking to me.

Larxene was able to get Riku out right after, though. It seemed she was going for anyone who was getting any of the girls out. She got Hayner out too, after he put up a fair fight. No one thought Larxene would catch his ball, but she did. Now there was only the Strifes (minus Cloud) and Marluxia against me, Xion, and Larxene. Somehow this didn't sit well with me. In fact, this was the perfect time I wanted to get out already.

A lot of kids weren't even bothering to participate now. The ones who were out, I mean. Many balls that were out of bounds were mainly just thrown back in. Mr. Phil and Mr. Cid got irritated about that at first, but the game was going on for so long that they didn't care anymore. Anything to get everyone out, I guess. It helped with not having to dodge so many balls now.

I subconsciously stayed close to Xion, while she dodged anything thrown at her effortlessly. She was definitely a lot more athletic than I gave her credit for. I thought she'd be able to distract me, but instead my eyes lingered, and I made the mistake of locking onto a certain pair of blue eyes across the gym. The ones that belonged to long, pink hair. A smirk was on his face, and if he didn't draw attention to himself, I bet he would have waved at me.

Instead, he mouthed to me something I would never forget.

" _No one quits the game._ "

The game? No, the game couldn't still be going after all this time.

"Naminé, watch out!"

My eyes grew wide when I saw a ball come flying towards me, and Xion went in front of me to block it. My eyes grew even wider when I realized she didn't merely block the ball from me—she _caught_  it.

_And she said so herself it was impossible to catch someone's ball._

There was a second of silence before Mr. Phil blew the whistle and yelled "Roxas, you're out!"

"Yeah, you're  _out_ , Roxas!" yelled Xion. I didn't know what she emphasized "out" for, but I peeked over to find she was glaring at Roxas, who only glared back at her. What just happened there?

"You okay, Naminé?" asked Xion as she carelessly dropped the ball.

"Y-Yeah," I said with a small nod. "Thank you, Xion."

She smiled at me. "Don't mention it." Suddenly, I heard a small  _thud_  and Xion fell forward a bit. Oh, goodness. When she wasn't paying attention, Sora totally hit her in the back. Xion must have known. It didn't help laughter was written all over Sora's face. "Dangit, Sora!" shouted Xion in disappointment.

He shrugged. "Sorry, I had to avenge my brother somehow!"

Some laughter was heard about that, while Mr. Phil just whistled for Xion to get out. Now it was only me and Larxene against Ven, Sora, and Marluxia.

I was going to be sick.

In fact, I was beginning to feel a little lightheaded, but I had no idea why. Maybe it was from all the anxiety I was feeling today. This class was almost over anyway, so I could make it. I had to. I'd just have to let myself get out next time. But it seemed Sora and Ven didn't want to hit me, so that only left me with one other option—more like person—and I wasn't going to do that.

"Come on, boys!" yelled out Larxene. "What are you waiting for? Come on, hit me! You little pints are gonna lose anyway."

Sora was the first to react and take the bait. "Who are you calling pints?" He grabbed a ball and threw it at her, only to have her catch it amazingly with only one hand. I swore I heard Sora mumble, "I shouldn't have fallen for that one." However, he only sighed and went over to the out area.

Things were beginning to get a little bit fuzzy, and I still couldn't figure out why. It almost felt like I was walking on air now.

"Wanna give it a shot, Ventus?" asked Larxene. "You can try and throw, but you'll lose."

Ven looked around before turning back to Larxene. "Ugh, fine, clearly everyone wants this game to end already." He grabbed a ball and carelessly threw it towards Larxene, who caught it again with only one hand. Ven went out, and now it was only Marluxia on the boy's team.

"When you really think about it," I heard Larxene whisper to me, "this game won't  _ever_  end."

My gaze shifted over to Marluxia who now mouthed, " _No one_ can _quit the game, after all_."

"So don't think you'll get away with it so easily," Larxene hissed at me.

I grew wide-eyed as I felt my whole entire body shake. I just wanted her to get away from me. I wanted them  _both_  to get away from me. No one could beat them anyway. So what was the point in even trying? They always won their own game. They did back at Destiny High.

"Game  _over_."

Everything felt even more fuzzy than before, and I felt my whole body begin to buckle from under me. I saw Marluxia holding a ball, and then he threw it at me at the last second. It felt like a trapdoor was pulled from under me, and suddenly the whole left side of my face was hit. There seemed to be some commotion, but I couldn't hear it. It was all just echos.

Then my entire world became black.

* * *

"Are you sure she's alright?"

"There doesn't seem to be a concussion or anything like that. Has she eaten at all today?"

"Well, my sister told me she doesn't eat when she's really nervous, and it looks like she hasn't been all day—from what I've seen of her, anyway."

"Then it would be best to get her something from the vending machine when she's recovered."

"Thank you, Miss Ariel."

"It's not a problem, Aqua."

_Aqua_? Aqua was here?

Wait, where was I?

My eyes blinked open slowly. I did it a few more times to look around to easily recognize the place as a nurse's office. I almost fell off the examination table when I realized Aqua was in the room. When I looked around some more, I saw no one else was in the room except her. I expected all my brothers to be here, possibly to drill me with even more questions than before. Instead, Aqua was the only person in here with me, for some reason.

"What do you remember?" she asked me softly.

"I—" I placed a hand to my head as all the events came back to me "—we were playing dodgeball, I felt a little lightheaded, and then I was hit with a ball and everything went black."

Aqua nodded her head and closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Just as I thought." She went to grab something from a table next to her, and I blinked once I realized what it was. "I managed to get you some pretzels from the vending machine before you woke up. You should probably actually eat something when you get home, though."

Tentatively, I took the pretzels from her. "Th-Thank you," I murmured to her. I was so stupid. All I had was an apple today, and I skipped lunch. It didn't help I was so anxious during dodgeball. That's how it got worse. "I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble."

Aqua waved it off. "It's fine, Naminé, don't worry about it." Her eyes narrowed at me before saying, "Maybe next time you shouldn't skip lunch, no matter what scares you."

I stiffened while in the middle of biting into a pretzel. "What?"

"I was also in the cafeteria when I saw you suddenly make a run for it. You just looked really scared about something, which made Kairi even more concerned for you."

All I seemed to do was make people worry. I had to stop doing that. "Yeah," I murmured. "I didn't mean to make her concerned. I just couldn't be in that cafeteria at that moment."

There was a small pause until Aqua said, "Are you sure you're alright? Clearly you're able to sit up and eat properly, but how do you feel?"

My face felt a little bruised, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it actually was. My head didn't really hurt much either. There was a slight ache over some parts of my body, but otherwise I was okay—physically, anyway. I didn't know about mentally. I remembered the words Larxene whispered to me, and the ones Marluxia mouthed to me. He was the one to throw the ball at me, which probably wasn't meant to hit my head, but it did.

"It was Larxene," I found myself blurting out.

Aqua stared at me in surprise. "Huh?"

"The bruise," I told her, "it was Larxene. She grabbed me harder than she should have, and Lena interfered before anything worse happened. Even if I told her not to, she didn't tell anyone regardless."

"That explains why Lena just kept lying about it, and Axel was completely clueless," Aqua muttered. I must have looked confused, because she decided to explain. "I've known Lena since we were kids. I can tell when she's lying to me. While she can fool a lot of people with her lies, anyone who knows her well enough can easily detect them. So I knew she was hiding something about what happened at the mall yesterday. I was just respectable enough not to push it. If she wanted to tell me, she would've. Just like you would."

I sighed heavily. "If only my brothers would learn that."

Aqua chuckled at that. "They simply care about you a lot, Naminé. They're your brothers."

"Yeah, but I don't need them trying to solve all my problems. I can take care of myself."

"While that may be true, you don't have to do everything on your own. Sometimes you just can't. You need someone there to help you, and who's better than family?"

I mused to myself that Aqua was like my own fairy godmother. Except, she didn't have a wand that could turn a pumpkin into a carriage, or whip up a beautiful dress and glass slippers for me. She couldn't turn me into a beautiful princess who could get her happily ever after. Besides, happily ever afters, in people's opinions, were with prince charmings. There was never a happily ever after with a princess and another princess. It was just a fantasy—ironically a bigger fantasy than prince charmings and princesses.

"Where are my brothers anyway?" I murmured.

Aqua chuckled slightly at that. "All of them went into a frenzy when you passed out. I think Cloud hit Marluxia right in the face himself, but he managed to make it seem like it was an accident, if I know him. Ven really freaked out, as he usually does. Roxas looked angry beyond belief, and Sora just hoped you were okay. I didn't think any of them would do any good for you right now with how they were acting, so I offered to take you to the nurse's office."

Everything she said didn't fully register to me. So I only managed to say, "You carried me in here?"

That made Aqua smile with an actual laugh. "I'm stronger than I look."

I glanced down at my hands. "Thank you, Aqua."

"You're welcome, Naminé," she said. "Remember, you don't have to tell your brothers everything. They're just concerned for you. I know Ven told me that he just wants you all to be close again like before. He was hoping three years wouldn't change much. Change happens, but it doesn't always have to be bad." Her blue eyes gazed at me. "Don't shut them out, Naminé. Things are different for you now."

"You know, Aqua," I murmured, "you're like the older sister I never had."

At that, Aqua really started laughing, and I couldn't help but wonder what was so funny. Once she stopped laughing for a bit, she said, "It's funny, because Ven said the exact same thing to me when we were slowly getting to know each other as friends."

"Well, uh, we are twins, after all!"

Aqua and I talked for a little bit longer while I was eating some more pretzels. She pointed out there was a bit of a bruise on my cheek, but it wouldn't be as much trouble to cover up like the one on my left arm. I was beginning to not feel as lightheaded as before, and Aqua really proved to be good company. Sometimes the nurse, named Miss Ariel (she insisted we called her Ariel), would check in on us every once in awhile. However, she'd purposely leave to let us chat.

After about fifteen minutes or so of being in here, there was a knock at the door. I saw Aqua take a glance at her phone before giving out a sigh. "He's right on cue, as I remember him."

"Who?" I asked as she got up from her seat.

"Cloud," she replied. "I'm guessing Cloud knows what happened to you at the mall—judging from my texts—because Cloud has a way of getting his information, as to how I have no idea. Lena wouldn't have told him anything, believe it or not, unless it was by force or blackmail somehow. Besides, between you and me, Lena keeps most of her secrets from Cloud because it makes him mad." She gave me a smile, which made me give a soft chuckle. "So, my best guess is that he managed to make your twin brothers head on home while sticking around himself, because he wants to talk to you alone."

I groaned mentally. Of course he wanted to talk about what happened. I was positive he didn't want to just talk about what happened at the dodgeball game either. He probably wanted to talk about what happened at lunch too.

"But, since your brother can get a bit aggressive, I'm going to have a talk with him."

My eyebrows rose high at that. "Are you sure that's a good idea? He can—He can make people cry, you know."

A look of determination was now on Aqua's face, and I swore she was  _smirking_  at me. Now I questioned where Kairi really got that face from. "Saix is my stepbrother, who's said to be pretty scary and intimidating at times, and I handle him just fine. Terra's my boyfriend, and you saw how I got him out in dodgeball first. So, I've dealt with worse. Cloud shouldn't be an issue."

Before I could protest, she opened the door and quickly exited out. Despite the funny glass on the nurse's door, I could make out the sight of Aqua and Cloud behind there. I dared to try and listen in to what they were saying, but a lot of it was muffled. Their voices sounded hushed for awhile, but then they got a little louder. I was afraid they would start yelling.

Within another minute or so, Aqua came back into the room with the door shut behind her. She looked a little irritated and let out a huff before turning to me with a small smile. "I think he'll be a bit easier on you now."

I grew wide-eyed. "What did you say to him?"

She shrugged. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Naminé." A concerned look crossed her face. "Can you stand?"

Slowly, I went to stand on my own two feet and realized the world wasn't spinning around me. I actually felt like I wasn't going to float away. Once she saw I was standing, Aqua gave a look of relief. "I guess this is an improvement?"

"Yes, it is," Aqua told me. "Oh, Naminé, one more thing before you go?"

She handed me her phone, and for a second I had no idea what she wanted me to do, but then it clicked. "You—You want my number?"

"Just in case you ever need someone to talk to," she said.

We exchanged numbers, which added another contact to my list that wasn't just my parents or my brothers or even Kairi, besides Xion. I gave Aqua a smile, and she smiled at me in return. It was nice to know something good happened before having to confront Cloud outside.

I thought about taking her word for it, talking to her in the future if I could, because who knew if I was going to even  _live_  once Cloud was done talking with me.


	7. Everything Matters

Aqua decided to head out first, claiming she was going to go find Terra. Soon it was just me in the nurse's room. I braced myself, taking a deep breath before I turned the knob to be greeted by a familiar tall blond I was hoping not to see.

"Naminé."

"Cloud."

There weren't many people in the hallways, much to my relief. I told Cloud I needed to get some things from my locker after changing back into my regular clothes. Thankfully, Kairi was kind enough to put my clothes and other things in my locker (as she texted me earlier). She knew what happened when I tended to leave my clothes unguarded, as well as other items.

After changing into my regular uniform, I got all the books I needed to put into my bag and met Cloud outside the school. Neither of us said much of anything. I didn't even say anything when I realized Cloud came to school on his motorcycle. He worked on it during his freshman year until he could actually drive it. It was one of the first times in a long while that I saw him actually get excited for something.

He told me to wear a helmet, despite he wasn't doing much of the same, and said to get on. I did so, not helping but feel nervous. Not to mention I was wearing a skirt, so I had to be thankful I was wearing long underwear. Holding tightly onto his waist, my brother started the motorcycle and we began speeding along down the street.

I had no idea where we were going, but it didn't take long for me to figure out we weren't heading home. After all, if Cloud wanted to have another talk with me, he wouldn't do it in the house if that's where the boys were.

When Cloud finally stopped the motorcycle, I was surprised to find we were at a park. It was a bit ways away from home, but walking home from here wouldn't be much of an issue, if you knew where to go. The both of us got off, and I went to sit on a bench while Cloud paced a bit in front of me. I tried to make myself appear as small as possible, dreading on what Cloud would say to me. If he was pacing, this really couldn't be good.

"What's going on, Naminé?" he finally demanded.

My mouth felt dry as I tried to say something, "I—"

"Hearing you were MIA from the cafeteria was one thing, but  _lying_  about where you were in the meantime? Then you passed out towards the end of the dodgeball game." He sighed heavily. "This is going to bring up quite a few interesting topics at school tomorrow," he murmured.

Was that what he was really worried about? I didn't know how to take it, but I guessed my emotions decided to have the best of me. "What? Afraid I'm going to ruin your reputation? That's all I seem to be doing lately—ruining things when I'm trying not to." I stared forward, not really focusing on anything or anyone. "First it's the mall where I decided to wander off, just because being surrounded by so many people I don't know can be so  _suffocating_  that I just had to get away. Then, of all things, I had to bump into Larxene. And Lena had to save me from her. Then all that does is make Roxas angry with me because apparently I'm just too good for his new friends, according to him, when that's not even it at all! No one seems to get I'm not good with new people sometimes, and it's not easy for me to make friends, because usually when I try, they take advantage of me."

I shook my head, making my voice a little softer. "For a second, I thought things would be the same. But who am I kidding? Things haven't been the same since Mom and Dad divorced. And I wasn't really able to actually be with any of you guys for the past three years. Mom brought me here to be with you guys, besides making a better change for me." I laughed. "Well, the joke's on me, because it seems things have gotten worse instead of better. I got Roxas mad at me within a day of being here. And I got just about everyone else I care about worried about me. All I do is mess everything up, just like I did at Destiny High."

Cloud hadn't spoken the entire time, and I was okay with that, because I realized I didn't want him to. I knew what he was going to say, and I didn't want to hear it. "Maybe I should just go." I stood up from the bench, having Cloud's back turned to me. "It seems everyone was a lot happier when we were separated, and I can't open myself up after what happened."

I was about to walk away when I heard an unexpected question.

"Why can't you?"

His tone wasn't as demanding. It was a lot more calm, which either meant his anger was gone, or he was keeping it hidden somewhere for later.

I stopped, turning to Cloud in confusion. "Huh?"

"Why can't you open yourself up?"

Once more, my gaze was elsewhere. This time it was at the grass under me. "I'm afraid."

I heard some rustles, and assumed Cloud had turned to me. "Afraid of what?"

"I'm afraid of history repeating itself. The last time I let myself open up too much, I got in trouble, which had me end up here."

I heard a heavy sigh from Cloud. "Naminé, do you know what you have here that you didn't have at Destiny High?"

"What?"

"Us," he clarified. "You have  _us_ , your brothers, even Dad. You've also got Kairi, and soon you'll have other friends. Friends who actually care about you, unlike Destiny High. Sometimes you have to hurt people, to have them hurt you, and learn from life. There's no other way you can do it. People, at times, will disappoint you, anger you, and even scare you. But if you love them, it doesn't matter. You'll stick by them no matter what." I gazed up, and he was closer with his eyes were fixed on me now, and I had officially just realized how much taller he was than me. "Hell, that's what family is for."

While Cloud didn't always have much to say, it only meant whatever he did say was rather important, especially now. What he said made me smile a little and reminded me that I could count on him and my brothers. Maybe not with everything, not yet, but there were some things I knew I could count on them for.

Without another thought, I walked forward and hugged Cloud. The action caught him off guard, but he hugged me back eventually.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to him. "I've just been so used to doing things on my own that it's not easy for me to open up or lean on other people."

Cloud chuckled. "Join the club."

* * *

After some more talking, Cloud and I headed back home. I decided then it was the perfect time to engross myself in nothing but homework. I even skipped dinner, despite it was a bad idea. After all, I fainted today barely ate anything. It'd been that way for awhile, as I told Cloud. Prior to a few weeks before coming to Twilight Town, I was extremely nervous and simply could not concentrate. So, I didn't eat much. I told Cloud it wasn't some kind of eating disorder. It sort of just happened, and I'd be fine once I finally adjusted.

Kairi texted me, asking if I was okay. Xion did the same, along with wondering if I needed help with any math homework. I told them both I was fine, and then told Xion I didn't need any homework help. I was glad they were concerned, but they had nothing to worry about. I was fine, except not really. There was Larxene and Marluxia to worry about.

It finally came to a point where I forced myself to go grab something for dinner, which was really just some TV dinner I found in the fridge. I didn't care which one I got.

As I went to put it in the microwave, though, that's when things got awkward.

I heard footsteps come into the kitchen at around seven, and I was surprised to find it was Roxas. He didn't seem to notice me until he fully walked into the kitchen, and he just stared at me. I was stupid enough to do the same thing in return, because I didn't know what else to do.

"I'll just make this TV dinner and then leave," I finally muttered. Quickly, I followed the instructions and put it in the microwave for the appropriate time. Once I did, I went to leave the kitchen, but before I did, my arm was grabbed.

The arm that was grabbed also happened to be my bruised arm.

I let out a small cry of pain as I ripped my arm from Roxas's grip. I watched as he winced slightly before saying, "Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay," I told him. "I know that time you didn't mean to." Wow, since when did I get catty?

Roxas dipped his head down in shame before he walked inside the kitchen more to lean against the counter. I just stood where I was, not wanting to come any closer towards him.

I cringed slightly at what I said. "I didn't mean that," I said. "I just—" I closed my eyes tightly "—I don't think I'm too good for your friends. In fact, I don't think I'm too good for anyone. I think I'm the exact opposite." When I didn't get much of a response, I decided to keep going. "Three years really does change a lot. We're not in middle school anymore. That's three Christmases that have been missed together. Three Thanksgivings we could have spent as a family. A bit of a broken one, perhaps, but everyone would still be together. Three New Year's Eves missed, Mother's Day, Father's Day...the list goes on. And I guessed you having all these new friends and everyone knowing each other and getting along with each other, while I knew no one really, just made me feel like you didn't need me there. So I thought it was best to just wander off and disappear like I usually do."

"So, what? Did you think we didn't care? That, since we had different lives, you couldn't be a part of it? Is that what you thought?" asked Roxas quietly.

I stared down at the ground with my hands folded together. "More or less," I said in a very quiet voice.

Roxas groaned. "I was upset at you at the mall, not just because you lied to me, but because I really wanted you to get along with my new friends and actually like them. I wanted you to be a part of that, Nam. And when you wandered off like that, it felt like one big fat 'no'."

I sighed heavily. "I was just scared because it felt like a world I didn't belong in, wouldn't belong in, or even be accepted in. It felt like everyone had such great and interesting lives and I didn't." My eyes glanced up at Roxas. "I'm sorry. For everything. I'm sorry for wandering off. I'm sorry for lying to you. I'm sorry for being an awful sister to you and Ven and Sora and Cloud when all you're doing is just being brothers to me. It's been awhile since I've had actual brothers actually there for me to lean on, and it'll take me awhile to get used to."

Standing up from his position against the counter, he walked towards me with a small smile. "Sorry for being such an ass to you, especially during chemistry, as well as during the dodgeball game. You know how nasty my temper gets, but it doesn't excuse me for what I did. I'm sorry, Naminé."

I brought him into a hug seconds later, and the both of us just hugged each other tightly until the microwave finally beeped for my food. I knew, for now, Roxas and I were on good terms again. However, I didn't know what would happen when I'd finally tell him what the arm bruise was about.

I actually finally admitted to Cloud about it, because I knew he would find out eventually from someone else, and I didn't want that. I was surprised Aqua hadn't told him a thing, but Cloud already had a feeling something was going on. Axel spoke to him about it, but Cloud got pretty much nothing from Lena, and what he saw at dodgeball today only confirmed it. He was rather unhappy about it, but I told him to let it go. After much begging, he said he would, but I wasn't sure if I could completely trust his word for it. There was also plenty of my room for my brothers' reactions to be a lot worse than his, like Roxas.

"Just tell them the truth about it," Cloud finally told me. "They aren't going to let it go until you tell them. If something happens, I'll deal with it."

"By the way, the arm bruise is from Larxene," I whispered to him before separating myself from him.

If it was possible, I swore steam was coming out of Roxas' ears.

" _What_?"

"You can ask Lena or Cloud for details," I said hurriedly before grabbing my dinner and dashing out of the room. Roxas told me our conversation was far from over, but I dared to think positive for once and liked to think it was over.

_That was not the way to handle it. That was not the way to handle it at all._

Well, I liked to avoid confrontation as much as possible.

I went to have my dinner in my room, despite I didn't eat very much of it. I couldn't help but think about how I hadn't apologized to Sora and Ven yet, and that they didn't know how I got the bruise on my arm either. Not to mention Sora was the one who was also running around looking for me during lunch, and I pretty much ran from him, so I needed to definitely apologize to him for that.

With a sigh, I got up from my desk and made the decision to go to Ven's room first. I knew he'd be a lot more calm about the situation. At least, I hoped he would. When it came to someone getting injured or something, he seriously freaked out. And I didn't want him to get that way over my bruised arm. Either way, I knew I had no other choice, unless I felt really comfortable lying to him. Besides, if I didn't say anything, Roxas was going to now. So it would have been best if he heard it all from me first.

Tentatively, I knocked on the open door to his room. He was at his desk, scribbling a lot of things down for homework and such. His whole body was alert the second he heard the knock, though, and I watched as his blue eyes landed onto me in slight surprise.

"Hi," I muttered softly. "Can I come in?"

"Uh, yeah," Ven answered me. "Come on in."

I stepped inside and gently closed the door behind me. Then I walked over and took a seat on his bed with my hands folded together like they were before with Roxas. Now that there was actual food in my stomach, I felt about ready to throw up already. But, no, I had to do this. It was a part of life.  _Come on, Naminé, you can do this._

Before I spoke, though, I was surprised to realize Ven did it first. "Are you okay?" he asked me with a concerned look on his face.

"Besides this new bruise on my cheek, I'm okay. I just a little lightheaded, that's all."

"That's good," Ven answered with relief. "That's really good."

There was a small moment of silence between us before I said, "I'm sorry for how things went down in chemistry, as well as during PE. I probably made you really worried, and—I'm just really sorry, Ven."

He was twirling his pencil now, using that as his own support. "It's understandable, Naminé. We practically cornered you into telling us what was going on—or, well, Roxas did, but still. It wasn't fair." He then gave out a sigh. "We were just concerned for you. I mean, we heard how things were at Destiny High, and we don't want history to repeat itself at Twilight High. That's what we feared was happening, so—"

"I was running out of the cafeteria because I saw Larxene."

Ven dropped his pencil. "Wait, what?"

_You can do this, Naminé._  "When I was uniform shopping, I bumped into her, and she gripped my arm too tight at one point, which is how I got the bruise. When I saw her today, I freaked out and ran out of the cafeteria. That's why."

His eyebrows then furrowed together in thought. "How did it happen?"

That was exactly what I didn't want. Ven liked to know the details and question about things. Sora would do the same thing, but it'd generally be out of curiosity. He didn't get specific like Ven did; he could be clever that way. "What do you mean?"

"Larxene wouldn't have just messed with you for no reason. There's always some sort of reason she messes with someone, even if it's ridiculous. She must have known you were a Strife, or something. But how would she be able to figure it out before school came up?"

I watched him tap his chin. "Then again, Twilight Town has a way of spreading the news out surprisingly fast and far. She could have heard about you coming in from someone. I dunno." He raised an eyebrow at me. "Do you know Larxene from somewhere?"

I couldn't tell him Larxene used to go to Destiny High and used to be one of the people who bullied me. Then the conversation would go on longer, and all I honestly wanted to do was apologize and tell him the truth. Maybe not all of it, but I had to at least tell him about the bruise.

"Ven, I'm rather tired, and I still need to apologize to Sora before getting back to more work." I got up from the bed and went to walk out of the room.

My arm was grabbed after that, thankfully not the one that was bruised. "Look, Nam, I'm sorry, okay? You know how I get. Larxene can just be—well, you know how she is now. And I don't want her to hurt you again."

I snorted. "Trust me, Cloud is gonna take care of that, if he hasn't already."

"Oh, good." I raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean,  _oh_ , that's  _not_  good. Let's just hope Cloud doesn't commit murder."

"You know he's more than capable."  _So is Larxene._

"I know, and that's what scares everyone in this family, even Dad."

There was a second's pause, and then Ven brought me into a hug I didn't expect. I hugged him back once I got over the shock. "We're all just looking out for you, okay, Naminé? Remember that."

"I know," I reassured him once we separated. "I always remember."

We said bye to each other before I left his room to go check on Sora now. I was definitely dreading this one. After all, Sora was the one who looked disappointed in me for lying, besides being concerned. He was the one who chased after me when I ran out of the cafeteria. Now I'd have to tell him the truth and see just how exactly he'd react to that.

I was in for it.

"Sora?" I asked quietly when I stood in front of his room. I wasn't surprised when I found him on his bed, staring at his history book like it was the most boring thing in the world.

"What?" he said lazily. His blue eyes became alive, though, when they landed on me. "Oh, Naminé, hey," he greeted me with a smile. However, it didn't seem to completely reach his face. "How's your head?"

"I've got a bruise on my cheek kinda, but other than that I'm okay." I walked over towards his bed and found myself sighing. "Look, Sora, about today—"

He waved it off lazily while looking in his book. "Don't worry about it, Nami."

I shook my head. "No, Sora, just let me talk. Please?" He stared at me for a good minute before nodding his head. "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble for you at school today." I fiddled with my hands while standing there. "And I'm also really sorry for what happened in chemistry." If Terra was around and he didn't scare me a little, I would apologize to him too. "I'm especially sorry about what happened during lunch. I knew you were looking for me, so I ran."

Sora frowned at me. "But why did you run?"

I braced myself for the hard part that was coming. "I saw Larxene in the cafeteria, and I freaked out. I didn't want him to see me, so I ran." I picked at my clothes, not bothering to look at Sora's face. "When I was at the mall yesterday, I ran into her. There was one point she grabbed my arm a little too hard, but Lena cut in before he could do anything worse. That's how I got the bruise on my arm, and that's why I ran away."

When I looked up, I saw Sora was definitely not happy. I could see it in his eyes. He was trying to cover it up, but I could see that familiar Strife anger from anywhere. "I never liked her. She can just—she can be so  _mean_. I'm gonna—"

I sighed. "Don't even bother. Cloud is taking care of it." Well, he really wasn't, because I told him not to. But, if I told the boys that, they'd leave it alone. Hopefully Cloud would roll along with it too.

Sora's eyebrows rose. "Wait, you told Cloud before any of us?"

"Really, Sora, why would I tell Cloud?" I mean, I didn't want to tell him in the first place, but I also didn't want him to try and get it out of someone else, because that's what he tended to do sometimes. So I wasn't exactly lying?

_You're the worst._

Well, I never said lying to Sora all the time was that bad, as horrible as that sounded.

It didn't take long for Sora to figure it out. "I swear, Cloud could be a cop."

"Isn't that what he's planning to get into when he graduates?"

"Oh, yeah." Getting off the subject of Cloud, he focused back on the Larxene thing. "Naminé, why didn't you say anything before? Why would she even mess with you? Because you're a Strife?"

I went to sit near Sora on the bed with a distressed breath. "Because I knew how you all were going to react! I didn't want you to make a big deal out of this. The goal of being here in Twilight Town was to be with you guys and not have things turn out like Destiny High again. If you all went and confronted Larxene or something, that would make things too different for my liking. Maybe not Destiny High different, but it would not be a good different." I sighed heavily. "And that's what I'm guessing. I can't think of any other reason why she'd mess with me."

_Liar, liar,_ liar.

I bit the inside of my cheek rather hard as Sora narrowed his eyes for a second at me. Whether he was thinking of what I said being truthful or not, I didn't want to know.

"Fine, fine," Sora said with a wave of his hand. "I get that, but...at least count on us."

Those words shocked me a bit. "Huh?"

Sora gave me a smile, while going to place a hand over mine. For a second, he jumped in surprise. "Jeez, your hands are always cold no matter what, I swear." And his were always warm, even in the winter time. I muttered a small apology, and he told me not to worry about it as he continued. "There is a reason we're family, Naminé. You don't have to go through everything alone. It probably felt that way, since we haven't seen each other in so long, and you were left to take care of Mom all on your own, but it's different now. We'll be there for you no matter what. Instead of only having us by phone or email or Skype or whatever, we're  _right here_ , Nami. And we're not going anywhere."

I was getting a lot of similar talks like this lately. While I wanted to accept them and believe them, I knew things would change if they knew the truth.

But maybe I didn't have to focus on that for now. Who said being gay had to be a top priority? Maybe, as I looked at my brother's grinning face, it didn't have to be important right now. Sure, there was Larxene and Marluxia, but I had a feeling they wouldn't do anything unless they got very, very bored—or something. I knew I was safe for now. Nobody had to know the real truth. I could just enjoy things as they were—for now.

"I love you, Sora," I whispered as I took my hand from his and brought him into a hug. He hugged me back as gently as possible, making me feel warm all over.

"I'm still your favorite, right?" he joked into my ear.

I couldn't help but giggle. "Yes, Sora, you've always been my favorite."

"Good."

As I went to bed that night, I knew things were going to be okay. Just for now, at the moment, they were going to be okay. All the pieces of the family puzzle had come together and would stay together for the time being.

_I'm going to be okay._

It was such a false, false reassurance to tell myself. A big way of putting myself in self-denial, but I needed the lie. Because if I believed the lie, so would everyone else, and they would stop asking questions.

No one would have to know the truth.


	8. Bad Boy, Even Worse Attitude

"Well, well, well, look who decided to finally show up to school."

It'd been a week and a half since everything that happened the very first day of school. I was in my AP Lit class when the seat behind me actually became occupied, and it was no other than Lena. She had her hair the same way I saw it last time I'd seen her, but she was wearing the school uniform now. Something about her seemed different, and it wasn't just because of her dresswear. I couldn't figure out what, so I simply ignored the thought and let it disappear.

Lena stuck her tongue out childishly at Axel, who happened to be sitting on her left. "Oh, shut up, Axel."

He chuckled. "You know that'll never happen." With a raised eyebrow, he asked, "Has Cloud given you any grief yet?"

She scoffed and shook her head at that. "No, not yet, but he probably has given Zack some grief." She gestured to another guy from across the room who was smiling and talking with other classmates. He had spiky black hair and blue eyes with such a bright smile on his face. I didn't know why, but he reminded me of Sora a little bit.

"Oh, I'm sure your time will come," Axel assured her. "But when does he not give Zack grief anyway?"

"Don't you mean when does he not give  _anyone_  grief?"

Aqua and I stayed fairly quiet throughout the conversation, but Aqua broke her silence when she asked, "Does this mean Van is back too then?"

I glanced back to find Lena frown slightly. "He should be, but I haven't really seen him."

"He'll probably turn up soon enough," Axel said. "Van has a knack for doing that."

"Naminé, have you met Van?" asked Lena.

"No, she hasn't," Aqua answered for me.

Axel chuckled. "Be lucky you haven't, but you should prepare yourself whenever you do."

Lena shook her head at him. "You guys make him sound so scary when he's really not."

"Um, Lena, do you know Van?" I asked.

"Of course I do, and he's not  _that_  scary." Before Axel could retaliate, Lena turned her eyes back over to me. "Trust me, whenever you meet him you'll be fine."

"He's just a little rough around the edges, that's all," Aqua added.

I blinked at them, not really knowing what to think from what I'd heard so far about this Van character. "I'll keep that in mind," I murmured. I didn't think I would meet this boy anytime soon anyway.

The world enjoyed proving me wrong, however.

It first began when I was wandering around the halls during my free period. I was taking a trip up the stairs, when I heard someone mutter "shit" under his or her breath. I walked up a little faster, and I was a little shocked when I saw a boy cradle his right hand to himself. His knuckles happened to be bleeding a bit, which made his pale hands appear even paler against the red blood. I saw he had a lot of black spikes for his hair, almost looking like Sora's style, but his was much messier. His uniform was disheveled, with his blue plaid tie hanging loosely and his white shirt all wrinkled up and a little dirtied, along with his blue plaid pants. I stood there in shock, not knowing what to do or how to approach the situation.

As if sensing my presence, the boy's face looked up at me. His eyes were a golden yellow; something I found striking yet scary. The both of us just stood there, staring at each other. For a second, I thought I saw panic in his eyes, but it disappeared the second I blinked. He soon glared at me, taking a few steps toward me while still cradling the injured hand.

"See something you like, doll?" he sneered, backing me up against a wall. Seeing him closer, he had a few cuts on his face, and he also had a lot of silver piercings on both ears. Was that even allowed here?

"Your eyes are kind of pretty," I said quietly. They frightened me a little, but what I told him wasn't a lie either. "But I was more worried about your hand."

He scoffed as he stared down at his hand. "What? this thing? It's nothing."

"You're bleeding. You should go see the nurse."

He chuckled darkly as he slowly backed away from me. "I can handle this just fine, doll. I don't need any nurse to take a look at me. Thanks for the concern, though, it's flattering." His tone the whole time sounded mocking and rather dry, like he didn't even care. He gave me a small wink before continuing on down the hallway.

"Vanitas!"

So this was the boy people had been talking about? The one who happened to be best friends with  _Ven_ of all people?

He would have escaped if a familiar voice hadn't stopped him. When he turned around, I thought for a second he was looking at me, but it was to the voice behind me. As I glanced behind, I was a little surprised when I saw who it was.

"Xion?"

Her eyes glanced at me before turning back to Vanitas, showing she acknowledged my presence, but she didn't say anything to me. "Vanitas, what are you doing out here?"

I raised my eyebrows. It surprised me a little how upset and worried she sounded.

"Why else? Trying to chat up with a pretty girl here and you're kinda ruining it," Vanitas replied.

Her eyes glanced at the injured hand he was cradling still, and then her eyes narrowed. "Unless you want me to tell Aqua or Kairi or someone similar, your best chance of dealing this with the least amount of doting is with me."

Vanitas scoffed, but I could see he was thinking about it. He pursed his lips a little before letting out a low grumble. "You want dollface to come with us? She might not keep her mouth shut."

Xion glanced back at me and gave a small smile. "Naminé won't say anything."

Vanitas let out a noise of disbelief.

"Can't say the same for whichever nurse will see you, though," she added.

He groaned.

* * *

The entire walk there consisted a lot of Vanitas and Xion talking, sounding like brother and sister from how they teased each other and picked on each other. Vanitas would always say something that sounded mocking, and all Xion would do is tease him right back. Then there were moments Vanitas would push her, and she'd push him right back. From what I observed, Xion was like that around a few of her friends, but each one was different, even slightly, in how she acted around them. I don't think she really pushed Axel or Roxas or anyone else like this. I didn't really say much of anything about it, just walked a little ways behind them to observe some more and stay out of their way.

There was a different nurse working in the nurse's office this time, so Vanitas didn't get much grief about it, much to his relief. He got patched up with a few more teasing words from Xion, and it was decided after that we would hang out in the quad area of the school to sit on some steps.

"As you can see, Naminé," Xion said, "this would be Vanitas. I apologize on his behalf for his horrible first impression. He has a record for those." Vanitas barely shrugged at that, and he didn't even seem to care at all or regret how he met me. "Van, this is Naminé."

His rather gold eyes stared at me, as if studying me. A small smirk fell on his face with a laugh following after. "Hmph, I would've never suspected a name like that for you."

I blinked dumbly. "Uh, thank you?"

I watched as Xion shook her head before glancing back at Vanitas. "So, how did you hurt your hand, Van?"

His jaw locked, and I watched as his left hand clenched into a small fist before he forced it to rest on one of his knees. "Rammed it pretty hard against a locker," he said casually. Everything about him screamed tense to me, even the way his nostrils flared slightly.

"Enough to make it bleed," Xion added with a certain look in her eyes.

"Yeah, sometimes I don't know my own strength," Vanitas replied smoothly.

Something was definitely going on, but it wasn't my place to judge or get involved. So all I said was, "Don't you have class right now, Xion?"

She shrugged. "I got a handwritten note from the nurse on why I was late coming back to class, so I don't have to go back yet."

At this, Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Just go back to class, Xi."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "And what about you?"

"The people here already expect me to be late to class or not even show up. You don't need to start. Then people will point fingers at me for being a bad influence on you."

He seemed to have a point Xion considered. With one more unsure glance at him, she sighed before standing up from the steps to face us both. "And how do I know you won't at least keep out of trouble before next period?"

"Let dollface here watch me then. There's not that much time left anyway."

Xion stared at me before staring back at Vanitas, and then her eyes once more turned to me, looking slightly concerned. "You don't have to if you don't want to, Naminé. I mean, he really isn't your responsibility."

"It's not a problem," I assured her right after. "There's not much else for me to do, and I could use the company." I gave her a small smile to ease her a little, and it looked like it worked, because she smiled back at me slightly in return.

"Thanks, Naminé." She gave Vanitas a look. "Don't cause her too much trouble, Van."

"Can't make any promises," he remarked.

Xion headed back to class, leaving me alone with Vanitas. A small silence occurred between us until he stood up and said, "Okay, your time's up."

"Wait, what?" He started to walk away from me, and I quickly stood up to follow after him. "Wait, Vanitas!"

He stopped, but he didn't completely turn to look at me. "Don't worry about it. Everyone knows trying to babysit me is just a waste of time and effort. It's time you learned that too."

Before I could say anything else, he walked away from me, and I knew it would have been useless if I tried to call for him or ran after him. As much as I didn't want Xion to become upset with me later, I knew forcing someone to do something they didn't want to do usually didn't end well. (Roxas proved that point quite often growing up.) So, I grudgingly let Vanitas go and hoped, for his sake, he wouldn't get into anymore trouble.

When we approached lunch, I was a little surprised Xion didn't ask me about Vanitas to see if he was okay and if I did my job or not. Instead, I was able to have my lunch in peace while noticing Vanitas wasn't anywhere in the lunch room, and wondered if he was doing alright. I knew he was none of my concern. He shouldn't have been, but what happened to his hand had me a little concerned.

_It's not like there's anything you can do, Naminé, so forget about him._

That would have been easy, until Chemistry class came up.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't dollface."

I looked up from my book to find Vanitas grin at me widely. He took a seat next to me, and I just stared at him in confusion.

"What? You've already forgotten me?" He let out a dry laugh. "I'm hurt, dollface. How could you forget a face like this one?"

I turned to my notebook awkwardly and didn't bother answering him. His face wasn't easy to forget, with that smirk and those eyes, but he didn't have to know that from me. He probably knew already.

The boy scoffed at me as he flipped open his chemistry book to a random page when the bell rang. I forced myself to pay attention to my notes, because I didn't do well with strangers, and I only just met Vanitas. Something felt weird about him. I didn't think I wanted to associate with somebody like him, so I pretended he wasn't there. Besides, for the past week and a half, no one was even sitting there. It was just me, so I was used to it.

Suddenly, my eyes watched as someone threw a note the boy's way. He stared at it, wondering who it was from, and I managed to catch Ven giving him a look to read the note. Vanitas rolled his eyes before opening it, and I managed to catch what it said.

_You better be nice to her, Van. That's my sister you're sitting next to._

At that, I swore Vanitas almost fell out of his seat. He glanced at me in disbelief, before turning back to the note, and then back to Ven. I stared back at my notebook, ignored everything else, and focused back on the lesson.

Awhile later, I heard a tap on the desk from Vanitas. He slid his notebook near me, and I saw there was something scribbled onto it I could barely read.

 _Dollface = Naminé_   _Strife?_

I saw he had two check boxes for "yes" or "no." I didn't think much of it, so I only checked "yes" and slid the notebook back to him. There was a noise of what sounded like irritation, and then he didn't bother me for the rest of the class. I thought, if he and Ven were best friends, he would already know who I was and even what I looked like. Or, maybe, he really just didn't care, so he didn't bother.

I searched through my brain to try and remember if Ven talked about this boy before, because the name Vanitas did sound familiar, but my mind was blank. I figured all my brothers talked about their friends at least once, so where was Vanitas all this time? Maybe Ven talked about him more than I remembered, which was likely because Ven could go on and on if he wanted to, just not as much as Sora.

Either way, this boy sounded more and more mysterious the more I got to know him.

* * *

"Vani!" yelled Kairi. "You're back!"

Vanitas wrinkled his nose in disgust as we all got in the circle we usually did for group work like every math class. However, this time Vanitas was in between Riku and Xion.

"You're making me wish I was at home instead if you're going to call me by that God awful nickname, Kairi," he grunted.

Xion laughed at that. "Admit it, Van, you missed us."

He snorted. " _Please_ , my life was a lot better without you two around."

Kairi shook her head. Her eyes landed on me, and it looked like she just remembered something. "Oh, Van, we have to introduce you to my best friend, Naminé! Naminé, this is Vanitas, one of our cousins. The other one's Zack, and he goes to this school too."

My eyebrows rose. That explained the classmate Zack in my AP Literature class. And of course they were Kairi's cousins. I remembered now, from some pictures I saw of Kairi as a kid. Her cousins were in a few of them, but it wasn't a lot. If Ven didn't mention Vanitas, Kairi probably did. Well, that solved one question I'd been thinking about.

"Oh, we've met," Vanitas said with an amused chuckle.

At this, Kairi turned to me with a look of confusion. "What is he talking about, Nami?"

Before I could say anything, Ven interrupted. "Oh, I gave Van a rude awakening during chemistry. Said if he messed with her, he'd pay for it." He let out a light laugh. "He didn't even know she's my sister! It shows how much you care about my family, Van."

 _Oh, you don't even know how we really met._  I shared a look with Xion, proving we knew something that everyone else didn't know, before we looked away a second later.

I watched as Vanitas flushed at the thought, but it was quickly covered up as he said, "You still forget from time to time that Xion is Kairi's twin and not mine." Ven's face quickly grew red, causing Hayner to snort, along with Pence.

"Is that true?" I quietly asked Xion.

She shrugged. "It happens with everyone, honestly. I get mistaken as a Fair than Lighthart."

During the rest of that class period, we worked as a group over the problems we had to do. Then, when we all separated back to where we sat, I realized Vanitas was the one who was supposed to sit in front of me. Was this some kind of sign? Two class periods, back to back, I was made to sit near Vanitas. From this angle, I could see how much hair he really had, and it was definitely a lot in a disarray.

"I guess we'll have a fun time together, dollface," Vanitas whispered to me with a smirk.

I didn't know whether to start screaming or keep on working on my homework. I decided to do the latter. However, before I worked on it, I wrote Xion a message and threw it in her direction. She stared at the note in confusion before looking at me, and then she went to open it. She smiled slightly before shaking her head and scribbled something else down to throw back at me.

_It's okay, Naminé. I figured he wasn't going to listen to you anyway, especially right after I left. He doesn't listen to anybody really. As long as the cops don't get a hold of him, it's fine. It's not your responsibility to deal with him anyway._

It still made me feel rather bad about it, so I wrote her something back.

_I'm still sorry for not keeping a closer eye on him._

At this, Xion giggled softly and her smile got wider as she wrote down another response.

_Don't worry about it._

I didn't know why, but the reassuring smile she gave me made my heart flutter a little and my cheeks flush slightly. I smiled a little back at her before quickly turning back to my work, ending the note passing as I prayed for my cheeks to stop feeling so flushed.

Kairi gave the smallest of snorts next to me.

I threw a ball of paper at her.

* * *

There wasn't much for me to do in art class except continue working on my sketch, along with helping with Xion's. The both of us talked about a few things; I was even tempted to talk to her about Vanitas, but I kept my mouth shut. It wasn't any of my business, so I'd stay out of it. Then, before I knew it, another school day already ended.

As I got everything from my locker and closed it, I jumped the second I shut my locker door. A familiar blonde was waiting for me there with her green eyes gleaming at me in amusement.

"I'm sorry, were you expecting someone else?" she asked in feigned politeness.

I had no idea what to say to her. Other than what happened in the gym for dodgeball, we hadn't spoken to each other since. I was perfectly fine with that. It gave me time to ignore any eye contact either her or Marluxia would throw at me, to tease me and torture me about this "game" they were still continuing with me. I was fine living in ignorance about it, even thinking they had forgotten about it. From the looks of it, however, Larxene certainly didn't.

"I didn't think so," Larxene said, basically answering her own question. "Why don't we take a walk together for a bit?"

I knew I had no other choice, so I simply nodded my head and let Larxene lead us in the walk. I clutched some of the books I had in my arms tightly, using them as my anchor for the moment. Mentally, I was freaking out, wondering what in the world she wanted with me, and then I wondered if she was leading me to Marluxia. The thought made me begin to panic, and the books I was holding felt a little slippery to grip in my hands.

"Do you remember that time Marluxia and I locked you up in the janitor's closet?" She made it sound like a simple prank, an innocent trick the both of them pulled. "And that time Marluxia squeezed your ass during lunch when no one was looking?" That time she whispered it in my ear, bringing chills up and down my spine. "It was always fun to do that, but you made it even more fun when you kept squirming and trying to run away."

"What do you want from me, Larxene?" I asked quietly. I tried to sound normal and casual, but I could tell my voice was threatening to shake and quiver, just like my body was.

When there was barely anyone around, my arm was suddenly grabbed, and I was thrown hard against the wall. My books cluttered to the floor, and Larxene stood over me while glowering at me. Both of her hands were placed against the wall on both sides of me to keep me there. I didn't want any new injuries for awhile, so I just held my breath and held back my cry of pain.

"You know very well what I want." She smirked. "You deserve to be punished in the worst ways possible." She took one glance at me before looking back at my face. "And you're a pretty girl; something Marluxia likes, so this benefits him too. I get to enjoy your pain; he gets his pleasure. Haven't we been over this?" she asked with a cackle. "My, my, for a pretty face, you sure are dumb, Naminé."

I waited for her to do her worst to me, because an answer like that sounded like she would get her enjoyment indeed.

But it never came.

"What are you stealing my girl for, Larxy?"

I blinked in surprise at the sound of the voice.  _Vanitas?_

Larxene sneered at the nickname, turning her head to the left to find Vanitas standing there with a smirk on his face. " _Your_  girl? Since when did you get someone who could actually stand your demonic face, Fair?"

He laughed loudly, like it was the funniest joke in the world, before walking closer towards us. "I'll take that as a compliment. You know, Lucifer was an angel once, before he was cast out of heaven. Then he became Satan, seen as some kind of demon, when he was still his beautiful self from heaven. That made him a lot more dangerous."

Larxene just stared at him before saying, "That doesn't answer the question."

Vanitas sighed heavily before pushing Larxene away from me. He grabbed my books before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and brought me close to him. "I need her for chemistry help, and I called dibs first. So she's mine for today, Larxene. Go find someone else to toy with. Maybe Demyx is available, if Zexion hasn't stolen him away, that is."

Without another word, Vanitas began walking away with his arm wrapped around my shoulders, also carrying my books in his arms too. Larxene grumbled and growled, glaring at us until we completely turned away and kept walking. Once we made it outside of the school, I felt I could breathe now.

"Thanks," I said softly.

Vanitas snorted as he immediately took his arm off my shoulders and handed me my books. "Why would I need you for chemistry help? I've got Ven."

I stared at him, not knowing what to say. "Still, you helped me get away from Larxene. That still deserves a thanks." I gripped my books tightly again, trying to keep my body under control.

"Trust me, when you owe me a favor, you'll know. I only did what I had to do because Larxene can be an annoying bitch, and she was Axel's girlfriend once upon a time. Therefore, she's on my list of people to torment."

"How long is this list of yours?"

He stared at me with a look of amusement. "Too long for your little brain to handle, blondie." He took the liberty to even tap my temple.

"Well, uh, thanks again. I'll just be going now," I told him, before awkwardly walking away to go home.

"You're  _walking_  home?"

I stopped, raising an eyebrow in confusion to myself. "Yeah? It's what people do when they don't have a car, or a bicycle, or simply just want to enjoy a stroll to themselves." Sensing he wasn't going to say anything else, I kept on walking.

There was a mutter and possibly a curse word until I heard, "Forget it. You're riding with me."

Quickly, I turned around to face him with wide eyes. "What? Oh, you don't have to do that."

Vanitas snorted as he walked towards me. "Frankly, I'm not in the mood to get yelled at by your bestie, because Kairi can be really loud when she wants to be. Xion would make me regret it somehow, and Aqua would scold me like the doting mother she always plays as. Thankfully, Saix is the only one who doesn't care that much—or at all, actually." He breathed out through his nose. "Let's also not forget you've got four brothers, one of which who happens to be my best friend, and I might not get the chemistry help I asked for if I let his precious little sister walk home without offering a ride."

"But you weren't offering," I found myself saying without stopping. Oh, crap.

"Excuse me?" Vanitas raised an eyebrow at me, asking me in what sounded like a challenging tone.

"You weren't asking or offering me a ride. You stated it." Good job, Naminé. This is how you make friends. I obviously needed to pick up  _How to Make Friends for Dummies_  before I went home. And I thought I was becoming a pro after a week and a half of being back in Twilight Town.

I expected Vanitas to get extremely angry with me, possibly even kill me. Instead, he only grinned, and his golden eyes shined at me. "I think I like you, dollface."

With that, Vanitas offered me a ride home on his motorcycle. He needed to talk to Ven about chemistry stuff anyway, so it was killing two birds with one stone. This was the second time I was riding home on a motorcycle, since I usually either walked home or carpooled with mainly Kairi or someone else I knew. I didn't know whether to find this a good thing or a bad thing, but it felt awkward for me to hold onto Vanitas, someone I had just met, while placing a helmet on my head.

* * *

"Honey, I'm home!" Vanitas declared loudly the second we entered into the house. I jumped slightly, definitely not expecting that loud exclamation.

"Always have to make an entrance, don't you?"

I was rather surprised at the sound of that voice. It was familiar, and I recognized who it was right away; I just didn't expect it. Riku's smirking face emerged, and I watched as Vanitas smirked right back at him.

"Please, Riku, you love me for it."

Riku scoffed. "You annoy everyone with it."

I could only guess Riku was here because of Sora, for the most part. Kairi did tell me the three of them were practically best friends (besides being my best friend of course), even if Sora and Kairi were dating now. Still, did Riku ever feel like the third wheel? I know I would have, but that was because I was always that kind of person. I always expected myself to be forgotten and left out.

"Have you seen VenVen anywhere?" Vanitas decided to change the topic right away.

Riku pointed a finger upstairs. "He's in his room."

"Thanks." His eyes turned to me with a grin on his face. "It was nice getting to know you, dollface."

We didn't even talk much—or at all—on the way here.

I just stood there while Vanitas walked past us to race up the stairs to Ven's room, leaving me and Riku alone in the room together. I quickly looked down at the ground, not wanting Riku's intimidating gaze on me. If it was, I didn't want to look at it. There was something weird about it when he looked at me; a different feeling I had with him than with Vanitas. I didn't know what it was, but it made me uncomfortable being alone with him.

"You're here with Sora?" I asked as casually as possible.

"Yeah," Riku replied. "We decided to have a study session after school, since Sora needs all the help he can with math."

"Oh, that's good. I'm glad he has someone that helps him."

A small, awkward silence fell between us. I would have bolted and ran, but I didn't really know where to go because my mind was scrambling to not panic while talking to Riku. Why did this always have to happen with people I didn't know that well?

"You could join us, if you wanted."

The response caught me off-guard for a second. I stared up at Riku, not truly processing the whole thing. "What?"

"Pretty sure Sora wouldn't mind. Maybe his sister will actually get him to focus on one problem."

"He can be a little scatterbrained."

"A little?" asked Riku with a snort.

That made me giggle softly. "Okay, maybe more than a little, but what can you do? It's who Sora is."

"No kidding."

Who knows? It would be fun to work on my homework with Sora, not to mention this would be a way for me to begin to know one of his best friends. It'd possibly make me not so scared of him too, but I didn't know. Riku just seemed like he could snap you in half if you weren't careful.

"Okay," I said, "I'll work with you guys."

I swore out of the corner of his lips, Riku gave me a smile. "Good."

We both walked up to Sora's room, finding him look extremely concentrated on the math homework we had with his pencil between his teeth. He lost concentration, though, when we walked through the door.

"Oh, Riku, you came back!" His eyes turned to me in slight confusion. "Why did you come here with Van?"

I felt my cheeks grow warm. "How did you know?"

Sora's eyebrows rose. "Wait, so I was right?"

He was only  _guessing_? "Sora!"

"Sora, stop interrogating your sister to dodge your math homework," Riku told him.

Sora flicked a piece of paper at him. "Stop telling me what to do,  _Mom_."

I shook my head as I situated myself onto Sora's bed, coming to sit right next to him as I got out my math book with my math homework inside. Sora grew wide-eyed as he saw what I had done so far. "Seriously? This is what you have?" He shook his head. "That's more than me!"

I shrugged. "Xion's a good teacher, not to mention Kairi also helps me out a bit."

"Sure, but still, that's more than me."

"That's because when Kairi helps you she's more of a distraction than anything else," Riku remarked.

Sora grew red and glared at Riku. "Shut up, Riku!"

Without trying to laugh, I said, "You'll get there, Sora, Riku and I will help you."

"Yeah, since apparently two people need to help an idiot like you."

Sora glared at him again, but it wasn't really all that threatening. Sora's glares usually weren't, as well as his angry faces. They looked more like he was sad or being pouty more than anything else.

At one point, I decided to take a break and went to get something from the kitchen while Riku and Sora kept working. I would have just gone in and out, if I didn't notice who was sitting at the kitchen table.

Vanitas was just sitting there with a bag of frozen vegetables on his damaged hand. He looked up from the table to look at me, and I simply stared back at was it I always caught him in situations like this? I never enjoyed making awkward eye contact with other people and not knowing what to say in the slightest. I even thought Vanitas went home already.

"Is your hand okay?" I asked as I went to the fridge to grab some orange juice.

"Like I told you and Xion earlier, it's nothing."

From the slight wince he gave when shifting the bag, it didn't look like nothing.

"It looks like it hurt."

The boy laughed. "No pain, no gain."

"Did you get in a fight with someone?"  _Shut up, Naminé. It's not even any of your business._

"Something like that."

I grabbed a cup from the cabinet to pour the orange juice in. "You could get in trouble for that."

I sensed Vanitas was giving one of his many smirks from behind me. "If they caught me, you mean."

"But what if they did?" I questioned while pouring some juice into the cup before putting it back in the fridge. "Maybe you shouldn't—maybe you shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff. You don't want to get in trouble, do you?"

Suddenly, before I even knew what was happening, I turned around to find Vanitas was standing right in front of me. He was so close, I could feel his breath on my face. Good thing I wasn't holding the cup just then; it would have fallen and shattered on the floor. I almost screamed, feeling my heartbeat quicken as I looked into Vanitas' bright, gold eyes that were practically glaring into my soul. The frozen vegetable bag was discarded, and both of his hands were against the kitchen counter to keep me trapped there.

Slowly, he came forward to whisper in my ear, "You've got your secrets, and I've got mine, dollface. Or should I call you another D-word to label you more appropriately?" He chuckled darkly as I stiffened. "What? You didn't think I would figure it out? I'm a lot better at hiding my secrets, while you decide to wear yours on your sleeve for everyone else to see," he sneered. "Don't ask me questions unless you're willing to answer some yourself, doll."

Next thing I knew, everything felt cold to me. I wondered if there was even any blood in my system, or even a heartbeat pulsing through my body.

"Uh, what's going on here?"

Quickly, Vanitas separated himself from me to look at an alarmed Ventus. "Nothing, VenVen, I just needed a break from all those formulas and shit. Your sister was just keeping me company." He gave me a look, only making me feel colder.

Ven raised an eyebrow at me, wondering if that was even the truth. I just nodded my head to him, not trusting my voice at the moment. "Okay," he murmured. "Let's get back to it then, huh?"

"Sure," Vanitas said. "See ya, dollface." He gave a wave before exiting out of there with Ven, as if nothing happened.

There was only two words I could think about right then, even as I grabbed my orange juice and walked back to Sora's room, ignoring the melted frozen vegetables on the kitchen table.

_He knows._


	9. Time for Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post the last two chapters to have me caught up with the story on ffnet, and to also make up for not posting a chapter yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

"I know we've already been at this school for a few weeks already, but you know what we need?"

"A nap?" asked Roxas.

"Go right back to summer vacation?" joked Xion with a giggle.

Axel rolled his eyes. "No, guys, a  _party_."

I was thankful it was only me, Xion, Roxas, and Axel sitting at our table. If we included people like Kairi and Sora and basically all my brothers, there would really be an uproar.

"A party?" repeated Roxas. He almost choked on his apple juice when he said that.

I watched as Xion's eyes lit up. "A party? That sounds like a great idea!"

An actual choking noise was heard before Roxas turned to look at Xion. "Xion, don't you remember the last party Axel threw?"

I continued to sit there in silence, interested now in what this party was, because this was the first I heard about it.

"Didn't the cops let us go with just a warning?"

I almost choked on my own lunch.

"Yeah," Roxas said casually, "after Axel almost burned down the backyard of Demyx's place."

"Hey!" called out Axel. "It was a complete and total accident."

"Sure, pyromaniac."

Xion laughed while Roxas and Axel gave each other looks at the cafeteria table. I even giggled a little myself.

"Seriously, though, what's the harm?" asked Axel. Roxas raised an eyebrow in challenge while Xion still smiled. "This school would be completely and totally boring if we didn't throw a party."

"And when do you plan to throw this party? Tomorrow?" Roxas snorted. "Who's going to come to a party on such short notice?"

"I think you underestimate Axel's ability to lure people to parties," Xion said with a small smirk.

"And it'll be even better if we held it at the Strife house."

That made Roxas and me almost spit out our drinks.

" _What_?" We both exclaimed at the same time.

Axel blinked. "No matter how many times that happens with any Strife twin, I'll never get used to it."

"You can't be  _serious_ ," Roxas said in a harsh whisper. He looked a little panicked, and I couldn't blame him. "Even if my dad bothered to go with it, there's Cloud you have to worry about, Axel."

"Isn't he going on a date with Aerith on Saturday anyway?" wondered Xion.

"Even if he was, he's going to think something's up. Not to mention word gets around this school pretty damn fast. So, how would he not know what was going on?"

Axel chuckled while shaking his head. "Easy. We would just get word around that there will be a kickass party tomorrow, and we'll text everyone the address the day of."

"Except Cloud," added Roxas.

"Possibly Aerith," Xion said.

"Aerith would never tell Cloud," Axel said with a scoff.

"Have you forgotten?"

Axel raised an eyebrow at Roxas.

"Nobody can lie to Cloud, and I mean  _nobody_."

"That's why nobody wants him to be a cop," Xion said quietly.

"You'd think it'd be because nobody wants him to get shot on the job or something, but  _no_." Roxas shook his head fervently. "There's just a lot of scary things about Cloud no one wants for police work, because he'd make all the criminals wish they were dead already."

There was a small pause until Axel said, "Anyway, come on, Roxas, this is my last year here at this school. Besides, you owe me after the pants incident."

_What did he mean by that?_  "Roxas, what is he talking about?"

Roxas looked at me, now appearing rather embarrassed. "Um, it's nothing."

Axel grinned widely. "You see, Roxas and I bond over embarrassing moments, mainly for him more than me."

Xion snickered to herself. "Roxas ripped his pants one day, and he was trying to figure out the issue in the bathroom. So, Axel walked in and noticed and offered to give him his jacket. Roxas tried to act all prideful and told Axel he didn't need a jacket, but Roxas eventually relented. I think he still has that jacket."

"Uh, no, I gave it back to Axel yesterday," Roxas retorted.

"You still owe me," Axel told him.

Roxas groaned, grumbling to himself before he finally said, " _Fine_." He pointed a finger in Axel's direction. "But if you ever light anything on fire, you're paying for the damage."

Axel shrugged at that, but I could sense some discomfort with him. "Alright, deal. Don't worry about it, Roxas. This party will be like nothing ever happened. It'll be that fun."

Xion blinked at him. "That didn't really make sense, Axel."

"Oh, you know what I mean! So, Naminé, are you in?"

I didn't expect this whole conversation to suddenly turn itself around to me. Three pairs of eyes were on me, and I could feel the pressure build. Trying to swallow my juice some more, I said, "Well, uh, as long as there's no drugs…."

"I can't make any promises, but other than that it's a yes then?"

Slowly, I nodded my head.

Axel smirked. "I knew there was a reason why I liked you, Naminé."

I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into that day.

* * *

In the halls, I could already hear a bunch of people gossip about the big party that was supposed to go down, but apparently no one knew where it was. No one would know until tomorrow, from what I heard. Some of those girls could be extremely loud.

It still amazed me how this school could spread rumors and gossip and other kinds of news rather fast, all because this school is bigger than mine.

Of course, if this was spreading around that fast, soon enough I would bump into—

"Did you know about this?"

I was confused when I walked over towards my locker, with Ven following behind. "Know about what?"

"The party," he responded. "Everyone's saying it was Axel's idea, and—" he glanced around before coming close to me to whisper "—I heard we're the ones hosting it. Is that true?"

I glanced around myself before turning back to him. "Who told you that?"

"Xion."

I gulped nervously. "Well, I—"

"Cloud is going to kill us. You know that, right?"

"Not if he doesn't find out right away," I replied as I went to grab my math materials. Once I finished gathering my own school supplies, I followed Ven so he could get his own.

He spluttered when we reached his locker. "But he  _will_  find out. You know it. I know it. Roxas knows it. Sora would know it if we told him."

I shook my head immediately. "As much as I love Sora, we both know he's not the best liar." I had to admit, Roxas was the best liar out of the four of us. Sometimes it could be scary how much he could imitate Cloud when it came to the whole "let's put our emotions on complete shutdown for a moment" type thing. So him knowing about the party was just fine for us. Ven wasn't as bad, depending on the lie and who you were talking to. The same went for me too. But Sora...he was just too good. Too pure. The poor child couldn't really lie to save his life. And having him lie to Cloud—we couldn't take that risk.

"That means you can't tell Kairi either," Ven remarked.

I stared at him. "I can't make any promises on that."

"The only good thing about this is Dad is out of town."

"What's going to be really bad is what Cloud tells him when he gets back. It'll be even worse if he breathes a word of this to Mom."

Ven took a deep, long breath before saying, "Well, we're teenagers. We live for making mistakes, right?"

"Not if it kills us in the end," I muttered bluntly.

Automatically, Ven frowned. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Naminé."

I winced. "Sorry, I'm just telling you the truth."

He sighed. "Yeah, I know. This whole thing is just freaking me out, you know?"

"You and me both."

* * *

I was surprised everyone was able to keep the whole party a secret until tomorrow. On Saturday, Cloud left the house around five, which gave us at least two hours before the party was supposed to start at seven. Axel and some of the others that actually knew where the party was texted everybody else they knew with the address, being careful to mention certain people who weren't supposed to get the message. I didn't think the plan would work, though, because it wasn't like they could control where all the messages ended up. And people made mistakes on who to send their messages to. We could only hope this party would last long enough before we got severely punished.

I never really cared much for parties. I didn't have any friends back in Destiny Islands, so most of my time was spent as a loner if I ever did go to one. The last party I remembered going to ended up having me publicly humiliated. So all I hoped for was just to hang out a bit and maybe enjoy it with friends. Besides, the way Axel ran his parties had me curious.

I threw on some casual clothes while trying to look at least a little nice. I wore a flowy blue dress that hugged my body a bit and fell only a little past my knees. I made sure to definitely wear long underwear underneath, otherwise I just never felt confident in these kind of dresses. I wore some white flats with it, while letting my blonde hair flow freely.

By the time it was seven, people began piling in, and it quickly turned into a party. There were plenty of drinks, which included alcohol (much to Roxas' annoyance), some food, a bit of music, and tons of people just hanging out. We also had a pool, but not many people were hanging out there—yet.

"I can't believe you're throwing a party at your house when you know how Cloud's gonna react when he finds out!" Kairi told me when we were about an hour in.

I shrugged. "This was all Axel's idea, not mine. And Roxas agreed to it."

"Yeah, but so did you."

Thank you, Kairi, for reminding me when I'm trying to forget how this will probably be my last day alive.

I drank some of the punch I was given in a red cup. "So? It's still not my party to deal with."

Kairi shook her head at me. "I hope I'll see you at school on Monday after this."

"Don't get your hopes up," I reassured her with a smile. Kairi laughed.

"I think what we should really hope for is that Axel doesn't burn this house down, like he almost did with Demyx's at the last party."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Yeah, that's true. Even if something does happen, I think one of the boys has a fire extinguisher ready."

"Good," Kairi said happily. "Hey, I'm gonna go find my friend Selphie. You wanna come with?"

I met Selphie once. She seemed like a cute, interesting girl, but I didn't feel like talking to her. I never really had the heart to tell Kairi that sometimes I really didn't know what to do with that girl because she really could go on and on about anything. What didn't help was she really liked to go on and on about boys.

"No thanks," I told her. "Good luck finding her, though. A ton of people came here."

"Yeah," Kairi said with a sigh. "Well, wish me luck! And try to have some fun, okay?" She gave me a small smile before walking away to go find Selphie. I simply stood there, sipping my punch while gazing around at everyone else. There were a few people who were dancing to the music playing, which was probably some Katy Perry or Nicki Minaj or whatever someone decided to put on. Some were already a little drunk, from what I could tell. (Hopefully Axel could keep his word on making sure no one got high at the party, or let drugs in in the first place.) Others were laughing and talking, looking remotely sober. Some were making out, and I made sure not to look anywhere in that direction.

But then I noticed someone coming towards me, and I almost didn't know who it was until she stood right in front of me. "Naminé!"

I blinked, not used to her sudden closeness. "Hi, Xion. What's up?"

She looked around before grabbing hold of my hand, dragging me to some part of my house that was a bit more private. My heartbeat quickened, and all I could focus on was her hand grabbing hold of mine. Her hand was warm. Maybe it felt that way because I naturally had cold hands, but it still felt nice to me. At least they weren't warm enough they could get sweaty, like Sora's.

"You wanna get out of here?"

I almost didn't register what she said, but then I couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Isn't some handsome guy supposed to say that to me before having us ride off into the sunset to our happily ever after?" I joked without even thinking. Was there something in this punch already making me feel a little loose?

Xion smiled at me. "I was never one to always follow stereotypes. Come on! I'll ask again. You wanna get out of here?"

I wasn't really all that interested in the party in the first place, and going somewhere with Xion sounded like fun. Didn't Kairi say I should let myself have fun anyway?

I nodded.

Xion's smile became brighter. "Great! I know exactly where we can go, and I brought some alcohol with us to get a taste of when we get there." She gave me a small wink, making me feel slightly flustered. "Still feel like getting out of here?"

I wasn't too keen about the alcohol thing, but I was curious about what place she had in mind to go to. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

I set my punch down on a table and sneaked out of the party with Xion. No one seemed to be paying attention to us, surprisingly enough. They were all too focused on themselves or someone else. I didn't even think any of my siblings realized I was leaving the party without giving a warning. Oh, well. They wouldn't even notice if I was gone. I was pretty sure I was still practically invisible to a lot of people.

"Do you mind getting there by bike?" asked Xion as she placed her black backpack over her back, filled with a bit alcohol she grabbed before leaving.

I shook my head. "No, I don't."

We got on Xion's blue bike, with me riding behind her and keeping my hands steady on her shoulders, and my feet precariously rested on the back of the bike where some part was sticking out of the two wheels to give me room to rest my feet.. I smiled as the wind roared in my ears while Xion rode through the evening. It felt nice and relaxing just to be with someone else and not a bunch of people, doing what feels practically like nothing. We even laughed a bit, such as when Xion almost crashed us into the ground because I almost fell off the bike.

I realized we had hit the Station Plaza, and I was a little confused as we got off Xion's bike.

"So you wanted to bring me here?" I wondered.

Xion shook her head at me. "Not here, exactly." She pointed a finger upwards. "I wanted to bring you up to that clock tower."

When I looked up, I recognized the clock tower I barely took a glance at when I first came here a few weeks ago. The large clock tower that stood higher than most of the buildings here in Twilight Town. There were many bells to its sides, making it look as if it had wings. I never actually went on top of that thing, but my brothers apparently had. They'd usually go up with their friends to hang out, eating sea salt ice cream. I didn't see the fun in that, but that was probably because I didn't have any friends in Destiny Islands, along with another reason I wasn't proud of admitting.

"You mean way— _way_  up there?"

My chest tightened a little, and my breaths felt a little more shallow. For once, my hands actually felt rather clammy, and I couldn't help but form them into small fists to prevent any possible shaking to be seen.

"Yeah!" said Xion brightly. I think I looked like I was about to be executed, because then she asked me, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, uh," I murmured while feeling my cheeks grow warm, "I'm just not a big fan of heights. That's all."

"That's okay," Xion reassured me. "If you fall, I'll catch you."

I didn't know why, but it was enough time to leave me too stunned to even refuse Xion's hand. Besides, she grabbed it before I could retaliate, and then she dragged me over towards the clock tower. The inside looked really scary from being so dark. Xion had to use the flashlight on her phone to help guide us through and up the stairs. The both of us coughed a bit while going up there, since the place was rather dusty. Xion also tripped a few times, because a miscalculation of steps—or maybe it was the fact the both of us were a little buzzed. I wasn't sure.

Goodness, there were so many  _stairs_. It was understandable, from how high the clock tower was. I tried not to think about it, because it only escalated my fear of falling and being uncomfortable around heights. Xion said to me that we were almost there, and I decided to take her word for it, because I was getting tired of these stairs. I swore she also squeezed my hand in reassurance of that, but I must have been imagining things.

The door creaked when opening to the top, and I had to squint my eyes for a second to focus at the moon in the sky. This would have been so much worse if the sun was still up.

Xion and I let go of each other's hands, and she kept walking forward with her bag still on her shoulder while I hung back. Just how high were we up here? My body began shaking, and anxiety settled in while I tried to take deep, steady breaths. Since there were so many stairs, I could put a guess on exactly how high we were up here. Therefore, I felt like my drink was going to come back up soon.

"See?" said Xion with her back turned to me. "Isn't the view great up here? I wish we could have come when the sunset's here. That's what Twilight Town is really known for; it's great sunsets." She paused in her talking and glanced over at me. I could see some sparkle to her blue eyes, even if it was pretty dark out here. "What are you doing all the way over there? Come over here! The view is great!"

I stuck close to the side of the clock tower's walls. "Um, uh, no thanks. It—it looks nice from here too!"

Xion placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at me. Wow, that was such a Kairi move. I could see how they were twins at that moment. "What did I tell you before, Naminé? I'd be there to catch you if you fell!" She held out a hand towards me with a genuine smile on her face.

There was something about her I hadn't felt in a long time. Sure, I felt it with my family and the few friends I had, but they didn't really count. This was with someone I had only met awhile ago. I didn't really know what the feeling was for awhile, but maybe now with my mind more relaxed, I was able to see what I felt.

Trust.

Tentatively, I got up from my position against the wall and slowly stepped over towards Xion. Gingerly, I placed her hand in mine. Xion held it as tightly as possible without hurting me, and got me to sit over the ledge with her to look up at the stars and the shining moon while still holding hands. Even though we were sitting over a ledge, being with Xion put me at ease at least a little bit. My heart wasn't pounding as much, and my shaking had been minimized.

"Wow," I said softly. "It is quite beautiful."

"I told you." I heard some noises, and my hand was let go. I noticed Xion was looking through her bag until she brought out two bottles of—was that beer?—alcohol onto the ledge. "Have you ever tried beer before?"

"Can't say I have," I answered her.

"Me either," Xion confessed with a small laugh. "I've at least tried rum and a 'virgin' margarita or two, but never beer." She was able to open the two beer bottles with just her hands. I never understood how someone could do it with their hands. If I had any sort of bottle with that kind of cap on top, I needed a contraption to open it, or even one of the boys to help me out. "Axel told me it tastes like piss."

A small noise escaped me. "If Axel told you that, why are we trying it then?"

Xion scoffed. "Axel can be a dirty liar sometimes. So who says he's right until we try it?"

I had a feeling Axel wouldn't joke with her about alcohol and what each kind tasted like, but I didn't feel like arguing with Xion about it. "Um, okay," I said as she handed me a beer bottle. I dared to sniff it before taking a drink. Already it didn't smell appealing. I didn't think alcohol was supposed to, but some were even said to be fruity. Why couldn't beer have been one of those things?

"Okay, on a count of three, we'll both drink it at the same time," Xion said. I nodded my head. "One...two...three!"

We both took a sip at the same time.

I swallowed mine with a small cough, while Xion spit hers out over the ledge.

If I had the urge, I would have started crying. Instead, I went to put the beer down to my right with a shake of my head and a small giggle while Xion kept coughing. "Shit," she managed to say. "That tasted worse than piss."

I nodded my head in agreement. "I think Axel was trying to warn you."

"Yeah, maybe."

When the both of us managed to get over the horrible taste of beer, we just let them be and would probably dispose of them in a garbage can somewhere later. That was apparently all the alcohol Xion had brought, because she was confident we could at least handle some beer, and there was really nothing else she could steal alcohol-wise from the party apparently without being seen. I told her it was okay, and that I could now cross-off beer from my alcohol list.

So, instead, the both of us focused on the view again. The sky was so dark and blue, and the stars were shining so bright. The thought of more worlds or universes, besides our own, being out there always had me thinking. We were something small that was part of something bigger, something beautiful. It amazed me that was all I got from just looking at the stars. It made me wish I could paint it or sketch it, if only it wasn't so dark.

"When Axel, Roxas, and I became friends, we'd always come up here after school as much as we could to have sea salt ice cream together." Xion glanced at me with a curious stare. "Have you ever had sea salt ice cream?"

I nodded my head with a soft smile. "Yes, I had some with my brothers one time when I visited here, and it was really fun. It's salty yet sweet."

"Yeah," Xion said quietly.

"Do you guys still come up here?"

The girl nodded her head. "Yeah, like I said, we have sea salt ice cream together as much as we can." I saw her frown in the little light we had around here. "Axel is graduating this year, though, and soon it'll be just me and Roxas. The trio will be broken up."

I didn't like the way that sounded. Without even thinking, I placed a hand on Xion's shoulder and squeezed it gently in reassurance. "He'll visit. I'm sure of it. You all seem like really great friends, and I've only been around for at least a week and a half—or two weeks now, I guess." I took my hand from her shoulder.

She gave me a smile of gratitude. "Thanks, Naminé."

I just smiled at her in return and nodded my head, as always, when I really didn't know what to say, especially when someone was saying their thanks to me.

"You know," I said out of nowhere, "while this place seems great to hang out at with friends, it also seems kinda romantic."  _What the hell, Naminé? You've drank too much spiked punch._

"You think so?"

I hadn't realized at the time Xion had placed her hand over mine much until I felt something touch my hand.

"Well, yeah," I answered bluntly.  _Shut up, woman, shut_ up _._  "I mean, look at the stars and the moon up in the sky. It almost feels like, from up here, you could just reach out and touch them. You feel like you're on top of the world even." Then I giggled to myself. "Who am I kidding? It's not like I've ever really been in a relationship, held anyone's hand in elementary or something, or even been kissed."

"You've never been  _kissed_?"

Good job, Naminé. Well done. Could you be anymore of a virgin?

I was thankful there wasn't that much lighting here, because I felt my face grow extremely hot when Xion asked me those words. "Uh, um, well, I—no. I never have been by anyone." I turned to Xion in embarrassment. "I've never had my first kiss, but I've always wondered what it was like—if it was as magical as people make it out to be in the movies."

Xion suddenly seemed closer to me than she seemed a few seconds ago, and her hand was still over mine the whole time. A soft smile was on her face as she whispered, "Well, would you like to find out?"

I swore my cheeks got redder. "Wh-What?"

"I mean, you don't have to say yes. I just wanted to give you an opportunity—as a friend, of course."

I had no idea what I was doing anymore when I fumbled out, "I don't want to—I mean—are you sure?"

Xion nodded her head solemnly. "I'm ready if you are."

I felt very, very naked, and I didn't know how to continue on with this. My body shook a little as we both sat under the stars, looking right at each other, and close enough to feel each other's breath on our faces. "W-Well, how does a first kiss even go?" As if subconsciously, I etched closer towards Xion.

"You kind of just let it happen," Xion said softly to me as she came closer as well. "Some people like to make some cheesy speech before it happens, make it more romantic that way, or just whatever makes them comfortable really. You kinda just know."

"Like right now?" I whispered as my stomach fluttered and my chest burned now. My heart was beating fast against my chest, and my entire body felt hot. Everything felt hot, and I wasn't sure what to do next.

"Yeah," Xion whispered right back as she placed a hand on my cheek, "like now."

Then Xion's lips touched mine, and at first I had no idea what to think. My mind was whirling, not comprehending the current action because it had never happened before, but then it took only a second to clear the haze to realize what was happening.

I wouldn't say it was always like it was in the movies, feeling some sort of spark or experiencing fireworks. It was only solemn and felt soft and light. Xion's lips felt smooth and soft against mine, and I tried to be as gentle as possible with hers, because I was afraid of hurting her or doing it wrong. Her breath was warm, but it smelled of alcohol. My breath was no better, since it probably reeked of the same thing. I almost bumped my nose against hers, so I just let her guide me through the kiss. I let her lips glide over mine gently, while her hold tightened over my hand, and I closed my eyes as I took in her breath, wanting to pull her closer to me, but decided against it. I only moved her lips against hers as gently as possible, hearing a light  _smack_  in the process.

Once we separated, it felt like I lost my breath completely. Same with Xion. I tentatively touched my lips with my fingers, not knowing what to do or say. My heart was still beating fast, and my body was still hot. I was sure my cheeks were even red now from that kiss. From the dim lighting, I swore Xion looked like she was blushing too, but she also wasn't really making eye contact with me. I noticed she wasn't even holding my hand anymore.

That kiss really only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt longer than that. That's what movies and books were right about when it came to kisses. Not to mention I felt something else; something fluttering in my stomach all the way to my chest. I wanted to say it was the alcohol, despite I didn't have much of it, but maybe it was—

_Ring!_

Xion sucked in a breath before fishing out her phone from the pocket of her pants before placing the phone to her ear. "Hello? Hey, Roxas. What's up?" There was a short pause until Xion's eyes grew wide. "Are you serious? Oh, shit." Her eyes then fell towards me. "Have I seen Naminé?" My stomach twisted into knots. "Erm, no, can't say I have. I'll tell you if she calls me or anything, though." Then she hung up without another word. "Turns out Cloud found out about the party and kicked everyone out."

Without another word, I grabbed the discarded beer and began to chug it, even if it was disgusting. I didn't know how else to react.

Oh,  _shit_. He found out.  _He found out_. We were dead, dead,  _dead_.

Might as well drink the rest of the beer as taste of the awful fate that was going to happen to me once I got home. Xion had a surprised look on her face, even as I finished the beer and gave out a loud cough.

"Let's just keep this between us, okay?" asked Xion. I assumed that was why she told Roxas she wasn't with me at all, so we wouldn't get in trouble for doing this. I nodded my head again, not being able to fully register anything right now except the fact I was going to get executed the second I got home. "C'mon, I'll drop you off a bit ways from your house, and you can just say you decided to take a stroll or something, yeah? They'll know it's Naminé being Naminé. And if they don't fall for it, no one needs to force you to tell the truth, okay?"

"Right," I muttered.

"Now let's go. We've been out for like for two hours already, and it's best we head back."

_Two hours_?

I was seriously so dead when I got home.

* * *

Xion dropped me off a few blocks away from my house. My mind was screaming the entire time. First off, Xion had kissed me, and I pretty much kissed her back. She was my first kiss. We'd been out at the clock tower for two hours, and now Cloud was going to kill us-well, technically, me. I didn't know what to do or say anymore and felt like I was about to faint at any second.

"Hopefully I'll see you at school on Monday, huh?" asked Xion when I got down from the bike.

_Can we kiss again?_

No, I couldn't say that. It was just a one time thing. Xion was just being really nice and great and  _really cute_ and—ugh, Naminé, stop it! The alcohol is really messing with your brain now. Yeah, that's it. Maybe I was a lightweight.

"R-Right," I said again, "I hope so."

"Great. Don't forget our project is due then! And, if we want, Ms. Elsa said we could let it be put on display, so don't forget that either." With a last wave, she rode off back home. Was she even suitable to ride a bike? What were the rules for that with alcohol? I didn't know, but Xion even said she'd take care of the beer bottles, and not to worry about her getting home. So I forced myself not to.

Now I had to worry about going home myself.

The walk didn't take long, but I tried to make it as long as possible, so I wouldn't have to go inside anytime soon. Cloud was seriously going to kill me, and possibly my other brothers too, if he hadn't already. But then my mind reverted back to that kiss and how good it felt, and everything felt like it would be okay. That kiss seemed to be the only thing that was keeping me sane for now.

With a deep breath, I walked over to the front door, ignoring how the front yard looked a little trashy, and found the front door wasn't even locked. Shakily, I gripped the handle and entered into the house as quietly as possible. No one seemed to be around, so I took the time to shut the door behind me very quietly too. Then I walked forward, hoping I could get to my room in one piece, so then I wouldn't have to—

"And where the hell have you been?"

Oh,  _shit_. He saw me.

Cloud was standing there with his arms crossed. His blue eyes were glaring at me darkly, practically looking deep into my soul and more than ready to kill me. I looked around to find none of my other brothers were in sight, and I wondered if Cloud actually killed them.

"Out," I managed to answer.

"Out  _where_?"

"Just taking a stroll."

"A stroll?" Cloud scoffed in disbelief. "A stroll is something like maybe ten to fifteen minutes tops. You were gone for two hours, Nami.  _Two hours_."

"Really?" I tried to sound as surprised as I possibly could without overdoing it. "Wow, I hadn't realized it lasted that long. I must have really been out of it. Sometimes I just like walking a lot, you know?"

I watched as Cloud chose this time to walk into the kitchen, and I sensed I was supposed to follow him otherwise I'd get killed. When I went in there, he held up a familiar object to me, and I realized to my utter horror that was my cellphone. There was no other cellphone that had a phone cover with a light blue background with sketched out sunflowers and a few daisies on it.

"There's about seventeen missed calls on here. Five of them from me, about seven from Roxas, three from Sora, and two from Ven. Around the second call, Ven heard something vibrating in here and discovered it was your cellphone." His eyes once more studied me carefully. "So you just decided to randomly go on a stroll without your cellphone?"

Xion had grabbed me so quickly that I hadn't even realized I was walking around without my cellphone. I should have realized something was off when Roxas called Xion instead of me. I would have picked up if he did, if my cellphone was even there.

"I-I'm sorry," I answered meekly. "I just couldn't take the people in here and desperately needed some fresh air and—"

Cloud sighed heavily as he set my phone down back on the kitchen table before walking closer to me. His eyes studied me carefully once more, and then I heard him sniff. Oh,  _God_. "Have you been drinking?"

I began to back up slowly, not realizing I was putting myself in a corner of the kitchen while Cloud got closer. "What the hell, Naminé?" Oh, God, he was beginning to sound really angry. And he was only going to get angrier at this rate. "Out of everyone in the family, the least I expected was to have this come from you." He shook his head. "What is so damn hard about telling the truth just for once without someone having to force it out of you?"

Force it out of me?

" _Just can't play it straight, huh? Well, then I guess we'll just have to force it out of you then."_

Why did situations like this have to bring me horrible reminders of the past?

"You're not forcing anything out of me," I said solemnly. "I don't have to tell you everything. Don't you understand that some things are just better left unsaid? Forcing something out is nothing but  _torture_."

While Cloud still may have looked angry, he also looked rather lost. "Naminé, what are you—"

Everything felt tense and uncomfortable. All I wanted to do was leave this room and not think about tonight anymore. I couldn't even think about the one good thing that happened, because I just wanted it all to be over with now. So I went to grab my phone and prepared myself to leave. "Just leave me alone, Cloud."

Before I could leave the kitchen, however, Cloud grabbed hold of my arm to prevent me from going anywhere. I stiffened, feeling my body grow cold as my heart began to beat a little faster again.

_Don't be afraid, Naminé. It's not him or her. It's just your brother._

But I could feel myself shake a bit, because what Cloud said really bothered me. Since when did the truth ever have to be forced out of me? Or have that be said by someone in my own family? Knowing that was how they felt? The thought made me ache in my chest, and I really wanted nothing more than to isolate myself in my room now.

"Nami—"

I ripped my arm from his grasp and crossed my arms over my chest, holding my phone tightly in one of my hands while keeping my gaze to the floor. "I get it, I get it, okay? I'm grounded. Dad will have a fit when he hears about this. Got it. I'll just go to my room now." I made sure to keep my voice under control as much as possible before racing up the stairs, hoping Cloud wouldn't run after me or try to hold me back again.

He didn't.

I took a deep breath as I made my way up the stairs, trying to calm myself again as I walked into my room and closed it behind me. Lightly, I bumped my head against the back of the door and slid down with a heavy sigh. I brought my knees close to my chest while setting my phone down to the side, and placed my head against my knees.

I could have just told him I was out with Xion, but then that would get her in trouble. And, since Cloud liked to be thorough, he'd probably ask what exactly we were doing, and I wasn't always the best liar. Besides, I didn't want to risk telling him the whole truth. I didn't want to slip up with telling him we actually  _kissed_  up on the clock tower. Then that would lead to an even bigger mess. I just couldn't risk it.

This was why I never did parties.


	10. A Little Twist from a Little Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yes, I basically just posted three chapters in one day. Don't worry it definitely won't happen again! I just couldn't help myself with posting the latest one. I'm extremely sorry, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Nothing else really happened since that day. I mean, of course we got grounded when Dad came back from his trip, but it was only for two weeks. I didn't care really. Being grounded was the least of my problems. My brothers moaned and groaned, not much from Cloud or Ven really, though. Roxas and Sora were annoyed with it the most. All we could do was go to school, come home, do homework, and that was it. We couldn't go hang out with friends, or even really hang out with each other unless it was for school.

Since Kairi and I always shared notes whenever we had class together, and she was my best friend... _and_  she was also Kairi, it didn't take her long to figure out what actually happened at the party (to a degree). She found out a week after the event, but she  _did_  find out. That's what mattered. She promised me she would interrogate me the second I wasn't grounded anymore, and I wasn't looking forward to it at all.

Like Sora, Kairi was very adamant about keeping her promises.

"Naminé, come on."

"Well, uh—"

"It's been a whole two weeks! You're officially not grounded anymore. So I think I have a right to know now."

"I told you. Xion and I—"

"I already know you guys left the party together. I've got witnesses."

I raised an eyebrow in question. "Witnesses? Like who?"

"Well, Demyx is one of them. Riku also saw you giggling with Xion while leaving. And then apparently Zexion caught sight of you too. Oh! Olette also saw you two riding off, along with Pence."

I blinked. "I thought we were being sneaky when we left."

Kairi snorted. "When you think you're being sneaky, you're not." She then raised a playful eyebrow at me. "So, what did you guys  _really_  do?"

I looked around to make sure no one was listening in on our conversation while walking away from the school and over towards my house. There was really no one around to be listening in, and I felt stupid for looking in the first place, but I had to in order to make sure. Then I turned to my anxious best friend and took a deep breath before I explained to her the entire story of what actually happened on the night of that party.

I told her how Xion stole a couple of beers, and we rode off on her bike to head up to the clock tower to look at the stars and try them out. I mentioned how horrible the beer tasted, how nice the view was despite my fear of heights, and then I got to the part I was hesitant on telling Kairi about.

"Wait, wait,  _wait_ ," she said in the most excited voice I've heard from Kairi since she and Sora got together, "are you telling me that you, my best friend, and my twin sister actually  _kissed_?"

We stopped walking, and I couldn't help but glance around again warily before turning back to Kairi. My face grew warm when I thought about that kiss and how great it was. "Y-Yeah," I admitted while glancing down and away in embarrassment.

"That's great! What happened after that?"

I sighed. "Roxas called Xion, and I had to be taken home. We've, uh, never spoken about it since then."

I was pretty sure if Kairi and I were not in public, she would have been in an outrage. "What? Why the hell not?" she demanded. Either way, her anger was easily seeping through her voice.

"I don't know, okay? When school came back around, Xion acted as if everything was normal, and you know how I am with confronting people. Besides, it was just a one time thing anyway. Obviously she doesn't like me or anything. That'd be dumb," I said with a small laugh.

Kairi rolled her eyes dramatically at that. "Don't be so sure."

"Why?" I dared to ask hopefully, "Has she—Has she said anything to you?"

Quickly, a grin fell into place. "So what if she did?"

Wow, Naminé, way to let your mouth just run like that carelessly around Kairi. I clutched onto my shoulder bag a little tighter as I began to walk forward, not really caring at the moment if Kairi would follow me or not. "I-I'm just asking!"

Kairi caught up to me in a matter of a seconds, still grinning. "You totally like her, don't you?"

"I don't really know," I said quietly. "I mean, we barely just became friends a few weeks ago, and she seems great and all, but—I don't know. It was just two friends kissing really—probably—possibly." I just wanted to know what it meant, mainly for Xion and not me. I didn't want it to be like nothing happened.

"Oh, God, don't be like how Xion was with Riku. I don't need a repeat of that."

Once more, we stopped walking, but that was because I completely and totally stopped in my tracks. Did I hear her right?

"What?"

Kairi glanced at me. "What? You don't know about Xion and Riku?"

Now I was extremely confused. "Uh, I thought they were good friends?"

"Oh, they are!" said Kairi. "They're pretty close. They got so close, though, that they dated once. It was okay for awhile, but then Xion began to pull the same stuff you're pulling with me right now. Thinking you're only just friends and it was a one time thing and —anyway, long story short, they dated for awhile, but it didn't work out. And the reason was that it felt like nothing changed except some added kisses and stuff. Those idiots could have broken up nicely and gone back to being friends a lot sooner if they actually talked out their feelings." Kairi shook her head before turning back to me. "But, yeah, I'm not saying you and Xion would end up like that. What I'm really trying to say is you two should talk things out." She sighed. "Problem is my sister can be awful sometimes with confrontation too."

Honestly, my mind just couldn't wrap its head around the fact Xion dated Riku. I knew there was something there between them. I guessed it was something that could have been—something that happened—but it didn't work out and now they're still good friends. Well,  _for now_  was the keyword. Who knew if it'd happen again? for good too? Besides, that clearly meant Xion wasn't—

"Hey, Nami? Nami!"

By the time Kairi shoved me a third time, I almost fell over and let out a squeak as I straightened myself up. "Huh?"

She shook her head at me. "You're just as bad as Sora." Okay, Kairi, I'm totally worse than Sora. This is also the boy my family bets he'd be the one to sleep through the apocalypse, because he's that much of a heavy sleeper. And you're dating him. "Anyway, I was saying my sister can also be pretty dense sometimes too. She probably doesn't know you like her. If you told her, maybe—"

"Uh, no thanks," I said immediately before she could finish. "I'm good."

"Naminé!" whined Kairi.

"It was a one time thing, Kai. I told you that."

She smirked. "But it doesn't have to be."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Absolutely not, Kairi! I don't even know what I would say. Besides, she's acting as if everything's fine and nothing happened since the party, so it's obviously not that big of a deal."

"Yeah, but it's a big deal to  _you_." Kairi grabbed hold of my arms, setting me in place and making me look up at her. "Nami, that was your first kiss. You felt something. My sister felt something. Now you two need to work out what exactly those feelings were and where to go from there. You know that."

I sighed softly. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I just don't know when would be the right time."

"Just ask her if you two can meet in private somewhere and that's it." Kairi gave me a soft smile. "I know it sounds complicated. I know it's hard for you to confront others. And I know this is especially difficult because this is your first kiss with a girl you've only known for a few weeks. Not to mention you probably don't have all of your feelings figured out, and neither does she. It'll be okay, though, I guarantee it. The worst that could happen is her saying no to feeling anything about that kiss and that's it."

I bit the inside of my cheek before saying, "Well—"

"Naminé, I  _know_  you've been wanting to ask her about it, and now you can! Just  _talk_  to her. That's all you have to do."

The thought was extremely nerve-wracking. Xion didn't mention that kiss to me ever since it happened, and it seemed I never had the chance to. If I tried, I backed out a second or two later, despite I really did want to know what it meant to her—then maybe it'd help me figure out what it meant to me.

"J-Just talk?" I asked Kairi tentatively.

Kairi smiled at me. "Yes, just talk."

I folded my lips together before taking her arms off me, turned around, and began walking ahead. "I'll think about it."

My best friend let out one of her most dramatic groans ever before stomping after me like the drama princess she could be. (No, not drama queen, she was the princess.)

* * *

When school came around the next day, I took Kairi's advice. I tried to find the perfect opportunity to talk to Xion alone, which definitely wasn't the easiest task in the world for me. I thought about finding an opportunity to ask her in math, but it got too distracting. It wasn't until art class came around that I asked if we could talk somewhere private.

"How about under the bleachers right after school? The boys don't have lacrosse practice until 3:30, so that gives us half an hour."

"Uh, sure."

Xion smiled at me in reply.

The second the school bell rang, I gathered all my stuff as quickly as possible and made my way over the bleachers. Surprisingly, no one was really around. Did this place really become that abandoned until lacrosse practice started?

"Psst, Naminé, over here!"

I turned my head to find Xion motioning for me to follow her under the bleachers. I followed her until we were in a good, secluded area where I felt quite sure no one would try to eavesdrop on our conversation.

"Alright, Nam, what did you want to talk to me about?" Her gaze was completely and totally on me, ready to hear whatever I had to say to her. While that was reassuring, it also made me feel nervous. Could I really ask her, after all this time, about that kiss? Was it even the right thing to do? After all, it happened weeks ago. What was the point in bringing it up again?

I mean, I did know why. I just wasn't sure if I could really do it. If I didn't, Kairi would probably smack me, though. Then I would smack myself.

_Might as well get it over with._

"Naminé?" Xion's gaze began to look worried.

I fiddled with my fingers, feeling like I was about ready to scream or make a run for it. I forced myself to take a deep breath before saying, "I know it's been awhile, but I can't help but wonder about that kiss we had at the clocktower."

I watched as Xion's eyebrows rose a little in shock, and her eyes widened ever so slightly. She seemed quite surprised that I even bothered to mention it. "Yeah? Um, what about it?"

"Well, I—,"  _Come on, Naminé, just spit it out already!_  "What did it mean?"

"...Huh?"

I was beginning to regret having this conversation happen. "What did it mean...for you?"

Xion pointed a finger to herself. "To me?" I nodded my head wordlessly. "Erm, I, uh—what did it mean for you?"

I almost laughed at how she turned the conversation right back to me. It made me realize that if one of us didn't confess soon enough, we would just keep tossing the question back and forth between us endlessly.

"It was the best kiss I had in my life."

Xion snorted slightly before giving out a small laugh. "Naminé, I think that was the only kiss you ever had in your life."

"Yeah, well," I said as softly and quietly as possible, "it was still great. I mean, wasn't it the same for you? You were kissing me back! Right?"

"Um…"

For some reason, I bothered to keep going, because now there was anxiety filling me up, along with a feeling that was rather fluttery and warm. A feeling I wasn't very familiar with. "I-I like you, Xion." She blinked at me, stunned. "I think I've finally come to terms with it, after trying to deny it for awhile now, since I'm not exactly out and about yet, if you know what I mean." I didn't stop there. My mind wasn't connecting well with controlling my mouth. All these fuzzy, warm feelings were messing up with the connection. "I felt attracted to you when I first saw you when shopping for uniforms. Then, I think it grew when we became friends, and kinda just exploded when we kissed. Now I know." I paused before speaking again, tentatively grabbing hold of Xion's hand in the process. "We don't have to do anything about this, really. I just—I just want to know what you feel. Because, after that kiss happened—and we didn't take the time to talk about it—I was really confused and didn't know how to act around you. So tell me, Xion, so I don't have to be so confused anymore."

There was a moment of silence between us. I bet it only lasted for a few seconds, but in that moment it felt like it lasted for hours. My eyes stared into Xion's, realizing for once just how incredibly blue they were. Kairi's were like that way too, but they weren't like Xion's. When I looked into her eyes, it felt like looking at the ocean or even a part of the sky. An ocean or a sky I wanted to get lost in, even if it wouldn't last long.

Suddenly, Xion pulled her hand away from me, and she took a few steps back. I stood there in shock and confusion, wondering why she was acting this way. Already I was beginning to feel like I was losing her. She was becoming the Xion I first met; the one who seemed rather quiet and guarded, but wasn't that way at all when you got to know her better and she got to know you. I didn't want that Xion again.

"I like Riku."

_What?_

The only sound I could hear for a second was a mental, inward shatter. As to what shattered, I had no idea.

"I-I've liked him for awhile now, and—I don't know if Kairi or anyone else told you—but we dated once. And I've been meaning to tell people we got back together. I just haven't gotten around to it yet," Xion continued in a quiet voice. "I guess you're the first to know," she added with a small laugh. "I had a bit to drink when we kissed, Naminé. I wasn't in my right mind. I was only giving you your first kiss as a friend. Nothing more." An apologetic look crossed her face. "I'm sorry."

She walked away without another word.

For a second, I didn't know what to feel. Was I supposed to be angry? Should I have even been relieved that we at least established what that kiss meant to the both of us now? I had no idea. However, it seemed my body knew how to react, because I could feel the familiar burn and itch behind my eyes, and the world became a little blurry as I felt something wet trail down my cheeks.

"How could I be so stupid?" I whispered to myself.

I walked in the opposite direction Xion took, looking down at the ground to hide my crying face from the world. Of course, it made me blind to where I was going, so it was inevitable for me to bump into someone.

"Whoa, sorry, I—Naminé?"

I just didn't expect it to be the person I had avoided for the past few weeks.

After the party occurred, I'd been avoiding Cloud most of the time afterwards. I know I couldn't truly blame him for what he said to me. He wasn't actually thinking of torturing the truth out of me then or even now, but still. I was being stupid and didn't bother trying to reconcile after that happened. I just kept on ignoring him.

"S-Sorry," I whispered, "I didn't mean to get in your way."

"You weren't," he told me. "What's wrong?"

Slowly, I glanced up at him to find he was rather concerned, and it only grew when he saw my face. I took a deep, shaky breath before saying, "I'm sorry for everything I said to you after that party incident. I know I should have apologized sooner, but—I just—I'm sorry." I somewhat hugged myself as I managed to keep on talking. "I'm just going to go ask one of my friends if they can give me a ride home. I don't really want to talk about what's wrong right now."

"Okay," Cloud said as he placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "Just know I'm here if you ever need to talk." He paused before saying, "You don't have to be sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so angry with you."

"Yeah, I know," I muttered. "It's okay, Cloud, I forgive you."  _Besides, I've dealt with worse._

I gave him a smile as reassurance, and he smiled back at me slightly before letting me go, since he had to go to lacrosse practice.

* * *

I actually didn't get myself a ride home with a friend. I just started walking out of the school with all my materials in my bag. Besides, I didn't want anyone to see me cry. That would raise questions. And the last thing I wanted was to be interrogated by someone about what happened, especially if it was alone and by someone who knew me well.

There was a sound of a motorcycle coming up, but I ignored it, figuring it would pass by me eventually.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing walking all alone?"

I stiffened, slowly turning around to look at whoever was riding his/her motorcycle. It sounded like a guy, and their outfit consisted of dark pants, some black and white Converse, a black shirt, a black motorcycle jacket, and a black and red helmet. I saw there was black nail polish on his fingers, along with a few pieces of jewelry that looked familiar, such as a black spiked leather bracelet on one of his wrists, and a chain on his pants.

By that point I stopped crying, but I bet my face didn't look so pretty. Still, I was too shocked to even care as I looked up at the person still wearing their helmet. "Vanitas?"

He stopped his motorcycle on the side of the street where I was, turning his motorcycle off while taking off his helmet with a grin. How he managed to not get helmet hair, I had no idea. Unless his hair now, the way it was all the time, had been his helmet hair. "What's up, dollface?"

"Don't you have lacrosse practice?" I sniffed while placing a strand of hair behind my ear.

Vanitas scoffed at that. "Yeah, but coach isn't gonna care if I come or not. Besides, it's just one practice." His careless attitude changed when he took a good look at my face. I swore something flickered in his eyes, but it quickly went away with a chuckle. "You look like shit."

I frowned. "Well, uh, thanks."

There was a few seconds of pause before Vanitas grumbled and held out his helmet to me. "Get on."

I stared at him in slight surprise. "Why?"

"Because leaving you out here to walk back home alone with that shitty face would make me an even bigger asshole than I usually am, and my assholery has a limit."

I sighed heavily. "Vanitas, I'm not really in the mood for your jokes right now."

"Let's be honest. I'm betting you're not looking forward to going home right now. You'd rather be anywhere else than there, because if you go home, you're going to be flooded with all these stupid questions and overly sympathetic, concerned faces. And, trust me, you want to get as far away from that as possible. It can get suffocating."

Unfortunately, Vanitas was pretty much right about all of that. I really didn't want to go home, because then whoever did come home would start asking me questions. And I just wanted to forget about this whole thing, because it was obviously all for nothing.

Without another word, I grabbed hold of the helmet in Vanitas' clutches. He smirked as I got on the motorcycle behind him and placed the helmet over my head before holding onto his waist. I didn't have any idea where we were going, but I didn't care. As long as it was somewhere else other than home, it didn't matter.


	11. Hazy Clocktower

"The clocktower?" I murmured as I took off my helmet and Vanitas parked his motorcycle a little ways from the clocktower building.

I was beginning to wonder if the universe liked to be ironically cruel, or Vanitas was the one being ironically cruel.

"Trust me, there's a good reason why you want to go on top of the clocktower on shitty days like this." I raised an eyebrow as I followed behind Vanitas. "And, no, it isn't to jump off it."

I followed Vanitas up the horribly long set of stairs until we reached the very top of the clocktower. I still felt anxious and paranoid, especially since I couldn't be too sure if Vanitas would try to catch me or not if I ever fell off the ledge.

"Take a seat next to me, dollface."

Slowly, I walked over to the ledge and sat next to Vanitas, but I kept a bit of distance between us. My eyes glanced at the sky to find what I found to be probably the most perfect view once again over Twilight Town. The sun wasn't setting yet, of course, but I didn't doubt Xion's words that it was probably spectacular. Ugh, it was probably best not to think about that girl right now.

"Now, I have a very serious question to ask you."

I stared at Vanitas as he rummaged through the pockets of his jacket. "What is it?" My stomach felt a little scrunched up at the thought of what he was planning to ask me. Could I even handle it?

"Have you ever been high before?"

Yeah, I could definitely not handle it.

If I had been drinking anything, I probably would have choked. "Uh, no?"

Vanitas grinned at me. "Then it's your lucky day, dollface! I've got plenty of joints in here filled with marijuana." He brought out a plastic bag filled with them.

"Um," I began unsurely, "should we even be doing that up here?"

He snorted. "There's no laws against it. It's practically the perfect spot to smoke weed anyway. No one can really smell it, and no one really bothers to come up here." Without any hesitation, Vanitas brought out a joint along with his lighter, placed the joint in his mouth, and lit it easily with his lighter. He seemed to suck in the weed before easily exhaling it out to have the smoke dissipate through the air.

"See?" asked Vanitas with only the smallest of coughs. "Then the smell of weed just goes into the air instead of on you. You still smell like weed, but it isn't as bad." He brought out another joint to hand over to me, and I shook my head. "Don't be such a stiff, dollface. Getting high is like a right of passage in your teenage life. Besides, if you had as shitty of a day as I did, you're gonna need it." He held out the joint even closer to me. "Come on, doll, it's not like I'm offering you cocaine or to get addicted on this stuff. Sometimes it's nice to forget about the shit in your life, even if it's just for a few minutes."

He was right about that. I knew smoking wasn't smart, especially if it ended up getting you high, but I wanted to forget about what happened with me and Xion. I wanted to forget how totally embarrassed I felt, along with something else that I didn't really want to admit. I just wanted to forget it all, even if it was only for awhile. I'd probably regret it, but how could I be a teenager without making a few stupid decisions in life anyway?

I took the joint from Vanitas tentatively, which made him grin at me. I tried to grin back, but it faltered. He lit up the joint, and I slowly put it to my lips before taking in a deep breath and blowing it out.

It sounded really simple, but it actually made me begin to cough uncontrollably.

Vanitas cackled so hard and so loud, I wondered if he was going to become the clocktower's new alarm system when it became the next hour.

"Wow, you decided to go for the full inhale," Vanitas managed to say after laughing for a few minutes. "That's a nice way to start it out, dollface. I probably should have warned you doing that will guarantee you hacking up a lung and question if you need an oxygen tank immediately."

He should have. He really should have, but he wouldn't have been Vanitas if he actually warned me beforehand. Then he couldn't laugh at me afterwards.

Vanitas was nice enough to show me a better way of smoking the joint, and I got a better hang of it, but I still coughed. However, it definitely wasn't as bad as before. I really only smoked a few. I didn't get why Vanitas brought so many, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he decided to smoke a lot more than me. After awhile, I felt a lot more relaxed and euphoric. The anxiety in me had lessened, well, somewhat. There were too many moments I felt like I was going to fall off the ledge, so I clung to Vanitas after a certain amount of time. He didn't seem to care, but he called me a wuss and a pussy in the process anyway.

"You know, the view really is great. The sunset is definitely one of the best things in this town," I murmured as I stared at the skies. "Xion was totally right, just like she always is."

Vanitas snorted at that. "Are you fucking me? Xion is such a fucking idiot."

"I bet she's better at math than you."

While blowing out a ring of smoke, Vanitas coughed only slightly before retorting, "Why don't you kindly fuck off with your shit, Naminé?" I knew he was trying to sound mean, but it wasn't easy when we were high now.

"Oh, my God," I said while sitting up straight, looking at the boy in surprise.

His eyes barely bothered to stay open at this point as he raised an eyebrow at me slightly. "What?"

"You said my name."

There was what felt like the longest pause in the world (I bet there wasn't really). "Yeah? And?"

"You've never called me by my actual name, even when you knew who I was."

Vanitas then looked surprised for two seconds before saying, "Oh, well, shit."

"Why do you even call me 'dollface'?" I questioned him. "I mean, I don't even look like a doll."

"Fucking please, you look like a doll, dollface."

"Seriously?" I didn't believe him for a second.

"You've got all this blonde hair and blue eyes and  _ugh_. You're practically Barbie. Yet you're not Barbie."

"How am I not Barbie?"

"Your boobs aren't big enough."

I blinked dumbly at him. "Oh, well, uh, thank you?"

Vanitas sighed with a roll of his eyes. "I call you dollface because you call me Vanitas."

"But that's—that's your name."

"If you haven't realized,  _dollface_ ," he said while practically spitting it in my face, "anyone who knows me doesn't call me Vanitas. It's usually Van or Vani or something else. I even take 'Hey, shitface'—" he practically screamed that before returning to his normal voice "—from time to time."

I wrinkled my nose while trying to think about it. "But, like, there are people who do know you who still call you Vanitas. So I don't get it." Vanitas just rolled his eyes and waved it off in response. "Besides, Vani is cute. I don't know why you don't like it."

"Okay, dollface, lemme make you a deal." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders to bring me close enough to place my head at least on his arm, if not his shoulder. "Anytime you call me Vani, I won't just let you, I might actually call you by your actual name."

I shrugged. "Okay! But, wait, I thought you hated Vani."

He snorted. "From Kairi and those losers it's a nightmare. From you? Hmph, there's one exception to every rule."

"So, what made your day so shitty?"

Another pause that felt like it was going on for hours occurred, until Vanitas said, "How about you go first?"

I guessed when I was high, I didn't care much about what I blurted out to Vanitas. "Xion and I kissed up on this clocktower when we should have been at that party that happened, like, a month ago. And we finally talked about it today. I told her I liked her...and she didn't like me back."

A low whistle sounded from Vanitas. "She rejected you? Whoa. That's...alarming."

"I basically poured out my heart to her, and she just took it and crushed it! Like who even does that?"

"Heart crushers, obviously."

"Xion's just a heart crusher," I said wistfully. "I don't like her anymore. I bet she's even crushed heart Smarties on Valentine's Day because she's that much of a heart crusher."

Vanitas laughed at that. It probably wasn't that funny, but it caused me to giggle a little bit as well. "That just fucking sucks. Who knew Xion was such a heart crusher?" I watched as he mused to himself on that thought. "I think there's another name for that, but I dunno what it is right now."

"So, what about you, Vanitas?"

The boy sighed as he took his arm off me and used it to fiddle with one of the bracelets he was wearing on him instead. Was he always wearing those clothes? Don't we usually wear uniforms at school? Those could be so constricting. It made you feel like you were in a prison wearing those. No wonder Vanitas changed. Why didn't I ever bring myself an extra pair of clothes?

"Two words: my fucking father."

It felt like ten minutes before I managed to think and say, "Isn't that more than two?"

Vanitas ignored me and continued. "He saw how my grades have been slumming. That I can't do this kind of crap again. I told him to shove it and fuck off. Got into another fight. My bro tried to talk to me about it, but I wasn't gonna have it. I kinda skipped out on the rest of the school and then I decided to fuck it with practice too. I didn't want to deal with everyone's shit. So now we're here. The demon boy and the witch."

I questioned why he didn't say "dollface" or something close to that instead, but I kept it to myself. "Weren't you getting better?"

"I was," he replied. "But then I discovered something while with my grandfather before coming back here. Something I've never told anyone, not even Ven. And since you and I are up here, baked to the point we're fucking  _burning_ , I'm gonna tell you what it is."

I stared at him. "Wh-What is it?"

Another one of those hour long pauses occurred. Vanitas got very, very close to my face with those golden eyes glaring at me. Then he whispered, "I'm not even a Fair."

I blinked, not knowing what else to do or say, especially with Vanitas so close to me.

"I never was," Vanitas continued, now backing away from my face. "I was moving some boxes for my grandfather in his basement when I was staying with him, and I discovered an old photo of some couple I didn't know or recognize. I asked my grandfather, he looked like he was about to shit himself, and then he told me the whole damn story. Turned out my dad was good friends with this couple, along with my mom, since like their high school days and all that shit. When I was born, I didn't look anything like them. Maybe I looked like some old relative from long ago, but otherwise I looked nothing like them. The eyes didn't help. So I was automatically considered an abomination. Mother knew Zack wanted a sibling, so mother and father decided to take me in. Dad wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for Mom. Now she's gone, and so are my supposed biological parents, 'cause they died in some freak accident ages ago themselves."

I frowned. "So you've been keeping this secret to yourself this whole time?"

Without a word, the boy nodded his head. "Yup. Nobody knows, except Dad and probably Zack, but I'm not sure. I'm not asking." He began laughing again. "This is funny really. It just proves what I know. No one actually wants me or wants to put up with me. They only do it because they have to."

I shook my head. "No, Vanitas, they're your friends for a reason."

He scoffed. "I bet you only came up here with me because of the weed."

I was about to say something. I wasn't sure what at the time, but we got interrupted when Vanitas' phone rung. He sighed loudly, even dipping his head back. "Motherfucking  _shit_!" he cursed loudly before bothering to answer the phone. "The fuck do you want?"

" _Vanitas! Where have you been_?"

Oh, I hadn't realized Vanitas put his phone on speaker.

"Around," Vanitas answered vaguely.

" _You missed practice, and you practically disappeared throughout half of the day. Did you skip school again_?"

"What do you think, blondie?"

There was a tired sigh and, " _Van, come on, you can't do this kind of stuff anymore. Heck, we've got the homecoming game in a few weeks!"_

"I kinda wasn't in the mood to kick Roxas' ass again. Sorry."

For some reason, I found that funny, and I couldn't help but giggle. Vanitas put a finger over his mouth quickly as he looked at me, and I tried to cover my laughter with my hand over my mouth.

" _...Who's with you right now?"_

"Queen Elizabeth. Now fuck off, Ven." Vanitas was about to hang up, but Ven didn't stop there.

" _That sounded a lot like Naminé. Why is Naminé with you?_ "

"We're about to have sex because we're madly in love. Why else?"

I felt my cheeks grow red while Vanitas snickered.

" _VANITAS! I'M SERIOUS._ "

"Whoa, Ven, when did you get a name change?"

Vanitas and I snickered at that while Ven grumbled.

Then came the question I had hoped wouldn't be asked during the conversation.

" _Are you both_ high _?"_

My anxiety and paranoia were beginning to escalate by this point, even though I was giggling, and I looked at Vanitas with a panicked look on my face. He stared back at me with an unreadable expression on his own before looking down at his phone.

"What happens if I say 'no'?"

There was silence for a good while until Ven said, " _Bring her home, Van. Do it now._ "

_Oh, shit. That's his mom voice._

Vanitas scoffed. "Or what?"

" _I'll call your dad."_

The boy cackled. "I don't care if you call that dumbass."

" _Fine, I'll call Zack then._ "

For the first time, I saw a small fraction of fear enter Vanitas' eyes. "Ven, don't you fucking dare."

" _I'm going to dial him, and he'll be_ sooo _disappointed when he knows what you did_."

Then a growl was made that I swore wasn't even human. "We'll be there in twenty-five fucking minutes."

" _It's like a fifteen minute drive._ "

"We're both baked, Ventus. It's gonna take at least ten minutes to actually get out of the area."

" _Fine, I'll see you soon then._ "

"Fine."

" _Bye_."

"Fuck you."

Vanitas ended the call before turning his gaze to me. "Well, dollface, it looks like we have to face reality again."

While I was absolutely terrified at what Ven would do to us, it didn't feel so bad with Vanitas here. "At least we don't have to face him alone." I grabbed onto Vanitas' arm with a smile. "We can do it together—demon boy and witch."

Vanitas smirked. "Yeah, the demon boy and the witch."

* * *

It probably took a little more than twenty-five minutes to get back to the Strife household, but that was because I swore Vanitas was going to fall off or something a few times. Thankfully, he didn't get us into an accident. Although, I wished he had, because I really didn't want to face Ven. He was practically the mother of the quads, as weird as that sounded.

Vanitas and I entered the house, after taking the longest time we could on opening the door. Neither of us should have been surprised when we saw Ven standing there, looking displeased, but I had let out a shriek before Vanitas shushed me.

"Good God, she's hit the anxiety and paranoia stage at the  _worst_  time," Vanitas said with a heavy sigh.

At this statement, Ven's eyes narrowed. "Kitchen. Now." He walked in there, with me and Vanitas following after him. " _Sit_."

Oh, God, the mom voice was very strong right now.

After we dumped our stuff near the door, Vanitas took a seat, placing his feet on the table. I took a seat next to him, not knowing if I could look Ven in the eye or not.

"God, Van," Ven muttered with a shake of his head, "what did you  _do_?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Would you calm the fuck down?"

That was clearly not the right thing to say, because it made Ven grow wide-eyed at him. " _Seriously_? No, I will not. Did you really get my own little sister high today?" He began staring down Vanitas.

Vanitas took a glance at me before glancing back at Ven, barely even phased. "Absolutely not, Ven, who do you think I am?"

Ven's stare was unrelenting, and it was beginning to scare me. "A liar, for starters," he answered. If this was with Roxas, he would have murdered Van by now. So, I was thankful it was only Ven, but it still scared me. I didn't need one of my brothers finding out about this. It only made the situation all the more embarrassing.

Vanitas scoffed. "Your point?"

Just as I thought, Ven's eyes turned to me. Oh, crap. "Nami?" I swore his face looked a billion times worse than before once he looked at me. "Did you smoke weed with Van today?"

"I-It's all Zack's," I spat out without even thinking. "Vanitas doesn't own any at all. None. He's clean, super clean. It's scary how clean he is." I began tapping my feet along the floor while clutching tightly onto my skirt, feeling my hands grow clammy, and my body grew hot.

Vanitas rolled his eyes as he looked at me. "For a pretty face, you sure are a bad liar."

"Well, you're not any good at lying either!" I remarked. "You're not even trying."

That caused Vanitas to cackle, and I wasn't sure if he generally found it funny or he was still that high. "Everybody knows I'm the devil while my brother is the angel in the family. I've accepted that fact a  _long_  time ago."

"Then why do you even bother lying and all that other stuff?"

Ven sighed at that. "Because he thinks it's fun to make people mad and upset and  _not to mention worried_." He glared at Vanitas. "Are you incapable of texting?"

Anyone else would have looked guilty, but Vanitas only smirked. "Aw, Venny was worried about me? God, sometimes you can act like such a girl." He turned to me. "I'm not apologizing for that offense."

I shrugged carelessly. "That's cool."

Ven groaned as he facepalmed. "Cloud is going to kill you both."

"Not if you don't tell him," Vanitas said.

"But since Ven is also related to me he's a really crappy liar," I said quietly.

"Oh, yeah!" Vanitas snickered. "I think he's worse than you."

" _Hey_!"

"Can't you do it?" I asked Vanitas. He snorted loudly.

"Out of everyone in your family, Cloud hates me the most. Hell, his  _dad_  even likes me. The one who comes in for a close second is surprisingly not Ven."

"Yet it's supposed to be surprising if my right guess is Roxas?"

Vanitas stared at me in fascination before turning to Ven. "...Man, Ven, why have I never met this girl until now?"

Ven sighed in exasperation. "Clearly so you two would never become friends."

"Are there any snacks in here? I suddenly just really need something in my mouth," I said bluntly.

That caused Vanitas to snort loudly again while Ven facepalmed—again.

* * *

"I'll just say Naminé wasn't feeling well after school, so she went upstairs and doesn't want to be disturbed for the rest of the night."

Vanitas stared at him blankly. "That is such bullshit that I bet a bunch of bulls would literally shit on you."

I almost choked on my ramen noodles. It was the quickest thing that could be made in this house, so Vanitas and I decided to eat some of it while Ven tried to think of a believable lie.

"You try and come up with a believable lie then!" exclaimed Ven as he glared at Vanitas. Coming from Ven, his glare wasn't very intimidating.

"I would, but I think you should just tell the truth, because Naminé might fuck it up before you can even get a sentence in."

I blinked at him. "What? Why?"

Vanitas chuckled. "It's your first time getting high, so I think your brothers are smart enough to notice something is wrong with you. Ven could even tell on the fucking phone."

"I know when you get high because you've done it often enough, Van. I was hoping that at least Nami didn't get high either. I guess I was wrong!"

I stared down at my bowl. "Am I going to die?"

Ven sighed. "No, Naminé, you're not going to die."

"They're going to kill me," I muttered to myself. "And then they're going to kill Vanitas, especially Cloud."

"The guy wants to become a cop or whatever, right?" Ven and I nodded our heads at Vanitas. "Heh, it's ironic, because he could totally get away with murder."

"He's not the only one." Ven gave a meaningful look at Vanitas to prove his point. "Seriously, though, they're probably going to be back home any minute. You're lucky I'm the only one who decided to come home while the others decided to socialize."

"Don't the boys already want to kill Vanitas? Or...somebody does?" I ate more ramen, because I still felt pretty empty inside. "This is really, really not good."

"How much weed did you both have anyway?" wondered Ven.

Vanitas shrugged. "I can't remember how many joints I had, but your sister barely snagged any, so you're fine. Her high should be wearing off soon maybe. I dunno. It feels like it could go on forever and ever."

Ven's shoulders sagged. "That doesn't help me."

"Just tell the damn truth, Ven. At least you won't get in trouble. Your ass is saved."

"I wouldn't have to tell anyone anything if you two didn't decide to be stupid!" retorted Ven. His eyes turned to me. "Honestly, Naminé, what even provoked you to have weed with him? Why did you even think about possibly getting high?"

Stupid. I was so, so stupid. That was all I was. I was stupid. Maybe that was why Xion didn't want me. I was nothing but stupid, and who liked people who were  _stupid_? Heart crushers probably didn't. Stupid people and their stupid hearts probably weren't even nice to crush, but she did it anyway...because heart crushers don't like stupid people. Yeah, of course. Why didn't I think of that?

"No wonder she doesn't like me," I whispered before standing up from the table. "I'm gonna go lie down." Without even asking for permission or anything, I walked out of the kitchen and upstairs to my room, where Ven had been kind enough to throw my school bag in on my bed. I ignored it and just flopped on my back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling.

_I'm just a stupid person._

It wasn't long before I heard the door open and then close behind me. Something was knocked off my bed, and I guessed it was my shoulder bag. Then I felt another body lay on the bed close to me, and I didn't even have to guess on who it was.

"If anyone asks, we can say we were gonna have sex, but we got high instead."

I snorted at that slightly before saying, "Vani?"

"Hmm?" he hummed.

"Despite what happened, I had fun."

" _Really_?" he sounded slightly surprised. "It was because of the weed, wasn't it?"

I didn't know if it was because of the weed still in my system (I was positive it was), but I turned my head to take a glance at the boy and said, "Shut up, Vanitas."

He stared at me in amusement. "Wow, dollface has got a backbone."

"I'm serious!" I exclaimed. "I had fun today, because I was hanging out with you. While I wasn't in the mood, I know deep down I wanted some company for the end to a really bad day. And I got it. So thank you."

There was a pause until Vanitas said, "Is this supposed to make us friends now?"

"It doesn't have to be," I answered softly. "Just know that if we ever get high together again, I'm not doing it for the weed."

"And just so you know, Xion is still a fucking idiot," Vanitas retorted with a smirk.

"So," I murmured, "you won't tell anyone—"

He blew through his mouth with a roll of his eyes. "My assholery has limits, Naminé. Why the hell should I care if you kissed Xion or not? Even if you kissed a unicorn, I wouldn't say anything, but I think that'd be fucking weird." He glanced at me before glancing back at the ceiling. "And, no, I'm not going to tell anyone about your little secret. I haven't, and I don't really care to. So stop worrying about it, dollface."

That made me smile slightly, but there was still one more thing that was bugging me that he wasn't answering. "Why are you calling me a witch?"

Vanitas groaned heavily before he said, "God, stop asking me so many questions when I'm so  _baked_. Jeez. Just do your fucking homework or something."

I snorted at that. He'd tell me sometime, but it obviously wouldn't be today.

Maybe Vanitas wasn't going to admit it, but I was willing to admit to myself that this was the start of an interesting friendship.

_Demon boy and the witch_.


	12. Spilled Latte

Hell broke a little loose when the boys got home.

As stated before, Ven wasn't the best liar. In the end, Vanitas confessed to everything and made it be his entire fault. I had no idea why he did that, but I had a feeling he enjoyed it when a lot of people were pissed at him for some weird reason, and people definitely got pissed at him. Cloud and Roxas were probably the worst in reactions. Vanitas was forced to leave the house right away after confessing (and some yelling from what I heard), and I questioned if I'd ever see him again— _alive_.

Then Cloud came into my room, and I knew what was coming.

"Just going to have a  _friend_  drive you home?"

I focused on my homework at the white table. "Well, I like to think we kinda are friends, and he did drive me home."

"Are you going out with him?"

I swore everyone was trying to make me cough or choke at things like this. However, I just glanced at Cloud as calmly as possible before turning back to my work. "What if I am? He's not a bad guy."

Cloud's eyes narrowed at me. "That doesn't answer my question."

"Look, I was just having a terrible end to my day, and Vanitas was around to cheer me up."

"So you two went out and got  _high_?"

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I won't do it again."  _I'm pretty sure that's a lie, Naminé._

A low growl sounded from Cloud, and I knew he was probably trying to find a way on how to handle the situation. It made me ponder if he was thinking about the fact we both just started talking to each other again, and I actually hoped he would put that into consideration before giving me my punishment.

"I still don't like Vanitas. Sure, I'm best friends with his brother, but that doesn't mean I have to like Vanitas." He seemed to struggle on what to say next. "Let's just pretend I gave you a lecture on how wrong it is to smoke weed, and we'll leave it at that."

I blinked dumbly. "What?"

He sighed heavily before saying, "After a rough day, sometimes you'll do things you never expected yourself to do. It happens." Then he gave me a look. "Just don't make a habit of it." With that, he left my room without another word.

I began to question to myself, while doing some French homework, if Cloud had possibly done drugs—or at least weed.

—

"I still cannot believe you got out of Cloud punishing you for smoking weed," Sora said in amazement as we all worked on our lab work. Ms. Maleficent gave us the rare opportunity to talk during this.

"That's because if he did, he would have been a hypocrite," Vanitas muttered.

I gave him a look.

"What about Dad?" wondered Ven.

"By the time he got home, the high wore off completely and I was pretty much in bed already," I answered.

"You still shouldn't have done it," Roxas grumbled.

"You're just mad Vanitas was the one who gave it to me, and he didn't give you any at all."

At this, Roxas glared at Vanitas. "Do you see what you're doing? You're corrupting her!"

I watched as Vanitas smirked to himself. "If this equals dollface  _finally_  growing a backbone, I will gladly be more than responsible."

"Besides, Roxas, we know you've done weed before," Sora said with a small snicker.

Roxas' face went red. "Did not!"

"The only one who hasn't done weed here is Ven and Sora," I said.

Sora's face slowly went red. "Actually…"

I grew wide-eyed. "What? Sora!"

"I'm sorry! It was like a one time thing, though, and it was actually by accident. I didn't realize these brownies we had at this party were not regular brownies."

Roxas pushed him. "I told you they were special brownies."

"How was I supposed to know special brownies meant they weren't actually special?"

"They were special alright, just not in the way you thought they were," Terra said.

That was when I began to realize something. "Terra, you've had weed?"

Terra finally paid attention to our conversation and turned his body towards us. "Huh? Oh, yeah."

For some reason, I didn't expect Terra of all people to have smoked weed before. "How did that happen?"

"Well, Lena bought this big bag of weed from someone. She wouldn't tell us who, and she decided to throw a big party. Riku told her not to, said she'd get in trouble since their dad was a cop, but she didn't care. Besides, in case you didn't know, Lena usually feels encouraged to do things she shouldn't do when someone tells her not to. So, a lot of us had weed in some form. Some had it while eating some brownies, others with bongs, some with blunts or joints, or somehow they simply just got it."

"A lot of people got high that night," Vanitas said with a chuckle. "Your brothers included, but Ven was sick that day, so he couldn't go." Ven let out a disgruntled noise, not even caring in the slightest he didn't go. Vanitas then decided to whisper in my ear, "That was probably the day Cloud got—"

Before he could finish, he got an eraser thrown at his face by Terra.

"Are you all actually working or fooling around?" questioned Ms. Maleficent. That caused some people at other tables to look at us, including Larxene. I ignored her gaze and went back to working, feeling embarrassed.

"We're working, Ms. Maleficent!" answered Ven quickly. "Don't you worry."

"Suck up," Vanitas said under his breath.

That earned him a rolled up paper ball to the face.

As we kept on working, there was a point where Roxas asked to go to the bathroom. It was the universal code word for the fact he probably wasn't going to the bathroom. He probably was going to roam through the halls, scroll through his phone, and troll through classes.

The second he left, we were all still working, but there was a new conversation added to the mix.

"So, tell us, Vanitas," Sora began, "are you actually dating our sister now or what?"

My whole face felt like it was burning, as well as the rest of my body, at this question. I shouldn't have been surprised, since I was betting my brothers were especially choosing this time to ask when I was around to embarrass me. The nice period between us could only last for so long until being the brothers they were would kick in at some point.

"You don't have to answer, Vanitas," I countered quickly.

"Guys, why don't you leave them alone?" asked Terra.

"Because we're her brothers, and that means we have every right to interrogate Vanitas if we want to," Ven answered.

Vanitas rolled his eyes at this. "That doesn't mean I'm gonna give you a straight answer."

"Why not?" whined Sora.

"Because I don't like you," Vanitas said bluntly.

Terra scoffed at that. "Well, now that's just not true."

"Believe what you will, but I'm not telling you shit. The only thing I can say is that your sister and I have not had sex yet, and I think that should be good news."

"Vanitas!" I hissed, pushing him with as much force as I could, which wasn't much. Ven looked sick at Vanitas' answer, while Sora's pencil broke as he was writing something else for the lab work we had to do. Some weird noise escaped Terra, and I didn't know if he was trying not to laugh, if he was surprised, or both.

I was so glad this was discussed while Roxas was out of the room. He probably would have tried to murder Vanitas otherwise.

* * *

Today was getting weird, because there were times I swore people would stare at me and whisper things until I looked at them. Then they'd scurry away before I could really hear anything. Doubt filled my head on what exactly they were saying, not helping but felt they were doing it because of me.

"They're probably wondering if we're together or not."

I almost screamed when I turned to find Vanitas somehow ended up right behind me. "V-Vanitas, don't scare me like that."

He chuckled in amusement. "You were about to shit yourself, weren't you?"

I rolled my eyes at him before noticing people were looking at us again. I tried to ignore them as I rummaged around for my math book. "It's not like we're together," I murmured.

"No, but people like to talk and make a big deal out of things to entertain their boring lives. Besides, it really shouldn't be a problem, y'know." He bent down to whisper in my ear, "It keeps the suspicion at bay, right?"

His whispering was tickling my ear, but I simply placed a strand of hair behind my ear to try and ignore the sensation. "Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Who knows?" Vanitas added, still whispering in my ear. "It could make Xion jealous."

The thought of Xion made my stomach churn. Once I grabbed hold of my math supplies, I shut my locker and took a step back from Vanitas. "You make it sound like I'm using you."

He shrugged. "Call it whatever you want. Doesn't help people from assuming we're dating."

"But they know we're just friends, right? Or someone has to know. Not everybody thinks…"

There was a pause. Something flickered in Vanitas' golden eyes, and then he scoffed as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close until we were barely touching. My cheeks felt warm, along with the rest of my body as I glanced down and away from him.

"I don't really see how a demon boy and a witch fit together, but let your imagination run wild as much as you please, dollface, regardless of what everyone thinks." He smirked as he said that very,  _very_  close to my lips. "It provides me great entertainment and pleasure." Without another word, he loosened his hold on me a little, but he still kept a hand around my waist, making me still feel a little hot.

"You're really enjoying it, aren't you?" I murmured as we began walking side by side.

"The fact we'll probably never ever fuck makes it fucking hilarious for me."

Actions similar to what happened in the hall continued during math class. Vanitas was definitely having a lot of fun with this indeed. Sometimes he'd send me winks from across the room while I tried to work. There was even times he'd send me notes, and some of them genuinely made me laugh. Other times he was really only being the Vanitas I knew him to be, which could be rather mischievous and proud and also careless of what others thought of him.

Xion would sometimes glance between us, looking confused beyond belief by what we were doing. Riku seemed to be the same way. If Xion liked him, why wasn't she doing anything similar like Vanitas and I were doing? I didn't bother questioning it. I didn't want to bother with Xion at all today.

Other people noticed us too. Hayner looked mortified. Pence wasn't really paying attention. Ven looked rather sick again, but there was also this certain look in his eye that probably said he was going to kill Vanitas.

Kairi probably had the worst reaction. I didn't think she could even find time to work because she seriously didn't know how to take us by how we were acting. There were a few times she tried to ask me what was going on, but I wasn't paying attention to her or much of anyone else. I was sure Vanitas was the only reason I was able to get through math class. Otherwise I would have tried to skip the whole period, because I really didn't want to deal with Xion. It was now a curse to sit next to her.

Okay, maybe I was exaggerating, but it felt close. Teenagers lived off exaggerating things anyway, right?

After class, Kairi tried to steal me away before I had to head to art.

"What the hell was that?"

When I made sure no one else was watching or listening, I replied, "Sorry, Vanitas is getting really carried away with all of this, but we're just friends, I swear."

"Oh, I know that, but  _seriously_? What the hell? Are you trying to get Xion to hate you?"

I winced at the questions, and then I realized something.  _Kairi has no idea what happened yesterday after school. Xion told her nothing._  Well, that made me feel great.

"She probably already does," I whispered to myself.

Kairi was able to hear me, though.

"What? Why would she?"

Tears were ready to fall from my eyes, but I held them back as I replied, "She doesn't like me, Kairi. She only wants to be friends. I told her I liked her, and she didn't feel the same, okay? The kiss between us meant nothing for her. Now I have to get to art."

Without another word, I left Kairi dumbfounded while getting ready for my next class.

* * *

While Xion and I usually sat together, this time I made sure to sit in a different area without as many people around, working on the latest project we had to do. It was trying to create nice sketches of these large, intricate buildings that we picked out from a group of photos. I was getting a nice start on mine, and maybe I'd get pretty far today since I didn't want to talk to Xion at all.

As I sat alone, however, someone decided to take a seat a few ways from me.

I shouldn't have been surprised that Xion decided to sit there, but I was.

"Look, Naminé—"

"You don't have to say anything," I said. "I get it, Xion. It's over and done with."

"If that's the truth, why have you been ignoring me all day?" I didn't answer. She should have known the reason why I was ignoring her. "I just wanted to apologize. I never meant to hurt you. I was only telling you the truth." I tried to focus on the structure of a large church I picked out, trying to find the lines more interesting than Xion's face. "No hard feelings, right?" she asked with the smallest of laughs.

My grip on my pencil grew tighter, and my heart clenched painfully. She made it sound like it wasn't a big deal, like it didn't even matter. Something that only happened between two friends and nothing more. Everything could just go back to the way they were, because it was apparently no big deal. Maybe she could, but I couldn't. No, the thought hurt too much.

"I want to say yes, because I don't want to lose you as a friend Xion, but I can't." Slowly, I got up from my seat and gathered all my materials. "It just—it just hurts too much right now." I looked her in the eye for two seconds only to say, "Goodbye, Xion."

I sat at another table and forced myself not to crumble into a heap as I delved deeper into my art.

* * *

Why did things have to end here? Why did I even have to get involved with Xion? Then again, I thought she looked like an angel the first day I met her. Why did I even think that? That was so stupid. Angels wouldn't make you feel like an idiot, would they? If so, Xion was in no way an angel to me. Hell, Kairi was a far better angel than she could ever be, and that was saying something.

Even when I thought those things, I didn't feel any better.

While taking my time to gather all my clothes before leaving the girl's locker room, I sensed someone nearby. I didn't think much of it as I walked out of the locker room, but then I was grabbed and taken to one of the more private areas of the girl's locker room. My back was thrown against some lockers, and I gasped in pain. Suddenly, a figure stood in front of me, and I wasn't the least bit surprised to find it was Larxene. Who else would use that much violence against me?

Before I could ask her what she wanted, she got extremely close to my face. Her green eyes were blazing with anger—no,  _rage_ —and I wasn't too sure why. What made her so aggravated this time to take it out on me? Asking wouldn't have been a wise choice, so I kept quiet as she glared down at me.

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" she hissed lowly. "So your demon is actually a hellhound for a bodyguard then?" She scoffed, letting out a bitter laugh. "Are you his shield too?" Wait,  _shield_? "That is just downright pathetic. The both of you are. Huh, I guess that means you two belong together after all. Too bad it's all just one big fat lie."

"Just where are you getting at, Larxene?" I dared to ask, but my voice didn't come out threatening or anything like that at all.

At that, she smirked widely at me. Malice was shown in her eyes. "This is just a fair warning. Just because you and demon boy are being all buddy buddy together, it doesn't mean you're off the hook. As we've said before," she said while coming dangerously close to my ear, "no one quits the game unless we say so." She shoved me a little harder against the lockers again, but I held in my cries, telling myself I suffered worse from the boys getting a little too rough and forgetting I was anywhere near their roughhousing.

I stood there—frozen, with no desire to budge an inch, as Larxene slowly stepped back before cackling in amusement. With one last wave, she disappeared without a trace. My heart was practically pounding in my chest, and I would have fainted already if I had the nerve. However, I also didn't want to cause a fuss, so I forced myself to stand upright before walking out of the locker room as quickly as possible once I finally was able to gather up all my clothes. Everything suddenly felt suffocating in there.

As I was racing towards my locker, I heard someone shout for me. I didn't pay much attention. All I could think about was how much I just wanted to get home and lose myself in homework, so I could forget Larxene's threats and how she gave me great anxiety.

My arm was grabbed, and I gasped in fear. Quickly, I stopped and turned to look who had grabbed hold of my arm, and I was met immediately with relief when I saw who it was.

"Sora! You scared me."

"Sorry," he apologized. "Didn't you hear me? I was calling you from all the way across the hallway."

My face began to flush. "Oh, were you? I'm sorry. I must have been out of it."

Slowly, Sora let go of my arm. He glanced around the hallways, as if making sure no one was going to try and listen in to our conversation. It was then I noticed how anxious he looked, which was rare. The boy rarely frowned or showed any negative emotions in general. So, for him to show me this much anxiety, it worried me a little bit.

"Naminé, I really need to talk to you about something," he finally said in a serious tone.

Was he finally going to ask Kairi to marry him?

That was a joke, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it was true. Those two had been in love with each other for a very long time. I wouldn't even be surprised if they got married in college.

"Okay," I replied. I didn't know what else to say. All I knew was that my own sense of anxiety was accelerating, and I was still surprised I hadn't passed out yet.

"Not here, though," he said while taking another wary glance at the kids emerging from their classes. "Say, how about you get your stuff, I'll meet you at your locker, and we'll both take a stroll together to Twilight Café. How about it?" Sora casted me a wide grin, which put me a bit more at ease. Now this was the Sora I knew.

Sora's happiness could be rather contagious, especially if it came in the form of a smile or a grin. So I couldn't help but give a small smile to him in return. "That sounds great."

"It's a plan then."

While gathering up my school materials into my shoulder bag, I realized this was the first time in a long while that Sora and I were hanging out together, just the two of us. At home, it didn't necessarily count, because at one point or another one of our brothers would butt in. This time we could hang out as Sora and Naminé, two siblings that made up a quad, plus one older brother.

One thing I liked about being with Sora was that he could easily carry on a conversation, even if you barely responded in return. That's what happened as we strolled over towards Twilight Café. He pretty much talked the entire time, telling me how his school day went. It included stories such as Riku apparently beat his ass in a tough game of Capture the Flag. I was thankful we hadn't done co-ed for that yet.

"So you guys have no practice today?" I asked.

Sora shook his head. "Our coach is smart enough to not work us to the bone every single day...sometimes. There are moments he's butt into P.E. classes and made just about every guy play and practice lacrosse."

"None of the girls?"

He laughed. "Lena is the only one who wants to be on the team and thoroughly enjoys it. Other girls we know could handle their own, but it doesn't mean they want to join."

Sora was kind enough to open the door for me. He even added a little bow, just to embarrass me. I shook my head at him, but quietly told him "thanks" as we both made our way in. Not many people were in the café that day, it looked like. The colors inside were much like the rest of Twilight Town. The tile floor was a light brown/caramel color. The booths were in a dark red color with light brown and dark brown included, even for the tables. The chairs around the place were also dark brown as well. The walls were a rich brown, and there were quite a few large windows letting the sun in. The entire place smelled of coffee and plenty of other smells I didn't recognize, but I bet they were good all the same.

My brother noticed I was lingering, and he rose both of his eyebrows. "Wait, haven't you been in here before with us?"

Now that I thought about it, I gave a slow shake of my head. "I think we went to a different one, but we never hit Twilight Café."

Sora frowned. "Huh, that's weird. Well, we're here now!" He raised his arms and gestured to the entire café. "Why don't you pick us a place to sit while I get what we want?"

I knew what that meant, and I didn't like it. "No, Sora, I can pay for my own!"

"Hey, I brought you here. The least I could do is pay for your drink."

I frowned. "But—But aren't they expensive here?"

Sora snorted. "This place is better and cheaper than Starbucks." He took a glance at the menu before turning back to me. "Vanilla latte, right?"

I nodded my head. "Oh, and don't forget—"

"Extra foamed milk," Sora and I said simultaneously.

_He remembered, after all these years…._

"Let me guess," I said, "you're going for the caramel cappuccino? extra caramel?"

"Of course!" replied Sora.

I guess it was nice still being able to know each other's coffee orders, despite it'd definitely been a very long while since we got any coffee together. Sora didn't actually like coffee  _that_  much. That was Roxas. However, Sora liked it to a degree, especially if it meant he could get extra caramel on something. Ven just tolerated it, particularly when he was in desperate need of coffee and wanted black coffee hardcore.

I went to find us a seat, eventually sitting in a chair and waiting as patiently as possible until Sora would come and sit. Then we'd wait for our drinks. As I watched from my seat, I noticed he was talking to someone rather familiar, and I had to squint a bit until I recognized who was at the register, taking Sora's order. I discovered it was Olette, and I was slightly shocked. I didn't know she had a job, let alone having it be at a café like this one. She glanced over and gave me a wave. I smiled slightly and waved back before letting my mind wander. Just what exactly did Sora want to talk to me about anyway? My brain wracked for any possible answers, but all I got were big fat blanks.

My phone buzzed, and I raised an eyebrow as I brought it out of my backpack before finding it was a new message from Kairi. I didn't really care, but what I did care about was the actual message she sent me.

_I'm so sorry, Nami._

Wait, what? What did she have to be sorry about?

Before I could swipe my phone to text back, Sora went to take a seat across from me at the round table we were sitting at. Quickly, I placed my phone back in my backpack before glancing up at my brother with a smile. At least, I tried. I was feeling more confused by the minute, and I just wanted to get this over with, so I could know what was going on with my brother. Then I could figure out what was going on with Kairi by myself, since I didn't want to concern Sora.

"So, Sora, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked quietly. It was a good thing the music wasn't super loud in this café.

Sora looked anxious again. It wasn't as bad as before, but he was getting fidgety. He intertwined his hands together, twiddling with his thumbs before separating his hands to have one scratch the back of his neck. He didn't know what to do with himself, clearly, and it just made me more concerned.

"There's no easier way for me to say this, but...I know the truth, Naminé."

I blinked at him in confusion. "What truth, Sora?"

Sora's eyes darkened, and he glanced at me with an apologetic expression. "I know what really happened with you the night of that party."

Pretending to feign innocence, I asked, "Oh? What do you mean?"

His face became solemn. "I know you and Xion kissed."

My whole body grew cold.

"Yeah, and?" I tried to play it off as casual, as if it didn't mean anything to me, but that kiss meant a lot more than that. It still did, despite the way things played out. I gripped onto the edge of the table to provide me comfort and support, in case my body ever tried to fall out of the seat.

"I just gotta know, Nam—" he took a deep breath before looking me straight in the eye "—do you like girls?"

I let out a choking noise before glancing down at the ground and nowhere else, with only one thought in my mind playing on repeat.

_It's all over._

I knew I'd have to tell him the truth sooner or later. After all, he was my brother. Besides, when he looked at me like that, I just couldn't find it in my heart to try and lie to him.

I took a deep, shaky breath while trying to give some kind of answer. My whole body felt hot now and shook slightly, while Sora just stared at me with that same look.

"Yes."

And then I ran.

I had no idea where I was going, but it was fight or flight, and I couldn't help but choose flight. I didn't listen to Sora calling out for me, or paid attention to the other people probably looking at us. Instead I focused on just running, getting away from the cafe as far as possible.

The wind roared in my ears, but my heart was pounding louder as I kept on running. I was surprised I could even run for so long, given the fact I wasn't the best runner ever. I didn't know how long I ran, but it was long enough that, when I stopped, I was far enough from the café. At least, I hoped, since I couldn't even remember where it was now. Taking as many breaths as I could, I found myself a bench nearby I could sit on. My throat felt rather dry and like someone was preventing air to get to my lungs. This was one of many reasons I couldn't do sports. I was surprised I hadn't even dropped dead yet.

Once I was able to relax a little and breathe better, I began to cry.

Tears streamed down my face, and I clutched onto my skirt tightly as I tried to keep my cries quiet. This was it. This was the end of my life as I knew it. Sora knew, and soon my entire family would know. I might as well should have ran home to begin packing.

But would Sora really be that disgusted with me? Would he dare tell everyone else about it too? The thought was cruel, and cruelty really wasn't in Sora's nature.

_I guess I'll find out later...whenever later is._

Quickly, I wiped my tears off my face and tried to get a hold of myself as I stood up and began walking forward, using my hair as a curtain when I found the streets of Twilight Town a lot more interesting than everything else.

Long before I knew it, I collided into someone.

Some books fell to the floor from the other person, and I immediately felt embarrassed. "I'm so sorry! I'll help you." Quickly, I crouched down to pick up the fallen books to hand back to the person.

"Oh, thank you! You're too kind."

I glanced up in complete and total shock. Out of all the people I could have bumped into in this town…

"Naminé?"

"Lena?"

I helped pick up the rest of her books as quickly as possible, while she stood up quickly herself with some of hers. "Wow, I didn't expect myself to bump into you of all people!" she exclaimed. "What are the odds?" Her eyes narrowed at me as she turned her head slightly to the side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" I replied immediately. "I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well," she said, "it kinda looks like you've been crying."

I clutched the stack of books tighter in my hands before replying, "Really? I-I haven't been, so. Everything's good."

Lena's gaze lingered on me a little longer, but then she shrugged before saying, "Thanks again for helping me with my books. You're really too kind."

"N-Not really," I said, feeling a little embarrassed. "It would have just felt really mean if I left you to pick up all those books by yourself."

"But that's what makes you kind regardless," she responded. "Say, just so I don't tumble and drop these books again, why don't you carry some of them back to my place? I don't have any money or anything to thank you, but does food work?

I blinked in bewilderment at the sudden proposal, but I bothered to say "Oh, uh, sure! That's just fine. Although you really don't have to—"

"Great! Why don't you hand me some books so we're more evened out in carrying them, and then we can head on over?"

I sniffed a bit before saying, "Okay."

Once we managed to even out the book carrying a little, I followed Lena to head into the direction of her house, all the while trying my hardest not to think about what happened with Sora.


End file.
